San Francisco, CA: A class action lawsuit has been filed charging that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. ("Chase") had a common practice of misclassifying its loan underwriters as exempt and failing to pay them for all overtime hours worked in violation of federal overtime pay laws. Chase, one of the country's largest commercial banks, performs a significant amount of real estate loan origination and underwriting. Chase employs roughly 500-1,000 underwriters nationwide.
"All of us underwriters worked long days and on weekends processing loan applications. We gave our all to bring in billions of dollars of revenue for Chase," stated plaintiff Gayla Pickle. "It's only fair that they should pay us for all that overtime."
The lawsuit alleges that these workers were unlawfully denied overtime pay. In fact, Chase reclassified its underwriters to nonexempt status in February 2009, but failed to provide them backpay for the overtime hours they had worked while classified as exempt. Additionally, a federal appellate court recently ruled against Chase on the issue of whether Chase underwriters are exempt from federal overtime laws.
This lawsuit seeks fair compensation for the underwriters employed by Chase who worked late nights and long weekends processing loans, which helped fuel Chase's success in the mortgage sector.
