AT&T Wage and Hour Class Action Litigation – $28 Million Settlement

Case name: Luque, et al. v. AT&T Corp., et al
Case type: Wage and Hour
Filed in: [United States District Court for the Northern District of California]
Docket: [Case no. 309CV05885]

Case Summary

Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight represented employees at AT&T/PacBell in three class and collective actions involving the telephone giant’s failure to pay overtime as required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

In November 2010, after federal courts in Connecticut and Georgia certified class and collective actions against AT&T/Pac Bell, the Northern District of California certified a class of some 1300 plaintiffs under both the FLSA and the California Labor Code.

In each of the class actions, plaintiffs alleged that, while their job duties were predominantly clerical in nature, AT&T/Pac Bell misclassified them as “field managers” or “first-level managers” in order to avoid paying the employees overtime under FLSA requirements. The complaints further alleged that, as “first-level managers,” they were made to work as many as 70 hours a week, remaining on call 24 hours a day for seven-day periods without receiving overtime.

In 2013, the parties reached a settlement totaling up to $28 million.