SAN FRANCISCO — Hertz managers are asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal for a chance at a class action overtime claim. The managers claim Hertz misclassified them as “exempt.” They are seeking their lost overtime and missed meal breaks.
The proposed class action claim has taken a lot of turns to reach this appeal. The initial lawsuit for failure to pay overtime was filed in 2007 in California state court under California’s wage laws. Hertz tried to move the case to federal district court, which led to a 2010 Supreme Court decision approving the move. After the case was moved to federal court, the managers asked the court to certify them as a class so there could be one trial for all of the affected managers. The California district court denied the request for class certification in 2011. Now the managers are appealing to the Ninth Circuit to review and reverse the decision so the case can go forward.
The district court judge looked to see if the managers in the proposed class were similarly situated enough to form a class. This means the managers would need to have suffered a common injury, like misclassification and denied overtime pay, and under similar enough circumstances, like their duties and why they were misclassified, so that one trial could address all of the damages. In this case, the judge found that the duties and authority were too varied from one manager to another for one “class” to represent all of the managers.
Some Hertz managers claimed they hired and fired hourly employees, while others did not. Also, many of the managers claimed they spent more than half of their time performing duties of hourly workers, but not necessarily on a regular basis. However, the Hertz managers believe the district court judge viewed the details of the managers’ responsibilities too narrowly when rejecting their class certification request. They believe the company’s policies governed all of the managers so the specifics of each manager are not as important. The court record does not specifically say what information and documents were reviewed for the courts judgment so it is unclear which side the Circuit Court might take in this case.
Determining if you are an “exempt” or “nonexempt” manager and whether you are owed overtime or not can be complicated and very fact specific. And those specific facts could make you part of a class. But it is not necessary to be part of a class action in order to fight for the overtime you are owed. Contact our experienced team of overtime pay lawyers today at (855) 754-2795 to discuss your situation. Or complete the Free Unpaid Overtime Case Review form on the top right of this page and our experienced legal team will evaluate your case. If we accept your case, we will represent you under our No Fee Promise. This means there are no legal fees or costs unless you receive a settlement.