Los Angeles, CA: An employment lawsuit alleging unpaid overtime and other labor law violations has been filed against Morgan Stanley by a former operations assistant. Specifically, the complaint alleges the bank failed to pay overtime and encouraged employees not to report any additional hours they worked.
Filed by Shelley Hix, the complaint claims that Morgan Stanley implemented a "uniform, companywide policy"to improperly record the hours operations associates actually worked, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
"In willful disregard of federal wage and hour law, Morgan Stanley failed and refused to pay plaintiff and all other similarly situated operations associates for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a work week,"the complaint states.
According to the complaint, operations associates provide support services at Morgan Stanley offices throughout the US. They are not classified as managers and therefore are not exempt from the FLSA' overtime rules, the lawsuit states.
The complaint further alleges that Morgan Stanley failed to provide a method for operations associates to record their overtime hours and specifically instructed them to understate the hours that they worked.
According to the complaint, Hix worked for Morgan Stanley from May 2006 through to November 2013 in a Morgan Stanley office in Annapolis, Maryland.
Hix and the purported class of operations associates are represented by Gregg I. Shavitz, Susan H. Stern and Paolo C. Meireles of the Shavitz Law Group PA and Seth R. Lesser, Jeffrey A. Klafter, Fran L. Rudich and Jason Conway of Klafter Olsen & Lesser LLP.
The case is Hix et al. v. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, case number 1:15-cv-00217, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
