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IT Workers File Overtime Pay Lawsuit Against Securities Company

IT Workers File Overtime Pay Lawsuit Against Securities CompanyNEW YORK — Steven Puente, a tech support employee of Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, filed an overtime class action suit against the company  for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The class covers a group of at least 50 other members of the company’s IT staff that may have been denied overtime wages beginning in 2008. According to Puente, his supervisors at Cantor acknowledged last year that he and other non-management staff in the IT department had been misclassified as exempt from mandatory overtime under FLSA and asked them to submit records of all overtime worked between 2008 and 2014. After submitting evidence that he was owed $100,000 in back pay, Puente was contacted by Cantor’s human resources office, which offered to pay him $51,000 for overtime work performed between 2012 and 2014 in exchange for him signing a document relieving the company from paying the rest of the overtime wages owed.

Waivers of FLSA claims

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that FLSA does not permit the private waiver of FLSA claims. The Court recognized that due to the unequal bargaining power between employers and employees, federal protection was required to prevent private contracts that would contravene the public policy purposes of FLSA. Permitting private waivers of FLSA back wages or liquidated damages would nullify the purposes of FLSA. Waivers may only be allowed if the Department of Labor (DOL) negotiated the waivers and supervised the settlement, of the settlement was supervised by a court.

To constitute a valid waiver in a DOL-supervised settlement, the employee is required to accept the payment which DOL determines is due and there must be payment in full. Additionally, the employee must sign a release to receive a payment that it believes fully settles his or her FLSA claims.

Payment of Overtime Wages

For non-exempt employees, FLSA requires overtime pay at a rate of not less than one and one-half times an employee’s regular rate of pay after 40 hours of work in a workweek. Normally, overtime pay earned in a particular workweek must be paid on the regular payday for the pay period in which the wages were earned. An employer doesn’t violate the requirement for prompt payment if it changes the pay schedule and the change is made for a legitimate business reason, doesn’t cause an unreasonable delay in payment, is intended to be permanent, and is not a means of getting around FLSA’s minimum wage or overtime requirements. If the amount of payment cannot be calculated until some time after the regular pay period, a delay is permissible so long as it is not longer than reasonably necessary for the employer to calculate the amount due. Employers are prohibited from delaying payment beyond the next payday after the calculation is completed.

If you or someone you know is not being paid overtime or is being asked to waive FLSA rights, you should call (855) 754-2795 or complete the Free Unpaid Overtime Case Review form on the top right of this page. Our top-rated team of wage lawyers will evaluate your situation to determine your best course of action. We will also determine if it is in your best interest to file a lawsuit against your employer. There are strict time limitations for filing, so it is important that you call our experienced attorneys today.

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