Former bank employees of Citigroup who sued the company for unpaid overtime, have won a key battle in their case. In February, a federal judge certified a nationwide collective action against Citigroup Inc. in a lawsuit that accuses the banking giant of misclassifying its business banking officers as exempt and failing to pay them for hours worked off the clock. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Dana Gilbert, who is the named plaintiff, and others similarly situated, worked as business banking officers for Citigroup selling the company’s basic business products and services. From 2006 until June 2007, Ms. Gilbert was paid on a salary basis and according to the lawsuit, in June 2007, Citigroup started paying Ms. Gilbert on an hourly basis. The transfer to an hourly position occurred as a result of Citigroup implementing an organizational restructuring in 2007.

But, Ms. Gilbert alleged in her suit that Citigroup misclassified her and other banking officers as exempt employees and failed to pay overtime compensation both before and after the restructuring in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Citigroup sought to limit the size and scope of the class action suit to the geographic regions in California where Ms. Gilbert had previously worked for the bank. Rejecting Citigroup’s arguments, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that because the plaintiff presented evidence that officers across North America were compensated in the same way, the request for a nationwide class action was warranted.
While we are not in the above case, our firm, in an effort to help workers who have been wrongly denied their overtime compensation, routinely pursues class action litigation under the Fair Labor Standards Act to recover unpaid overtime wages. For more information, contact Larry Golston at 1-800-898-2034 or visit our website at www.BeasleyAllen.com.