NEW YORK — Merrill Lynch employees who took part in the company’s financial adviser training program have brought a proposed collective action wage and overtime lawsuit against the financial giant and its parent company, Bank of America Corp. The former trainees claim the company failed to pay them one and a half times their regular rate when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. The Merrill Lynch employees allege the company’s failure to pay proper wages violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and California and New York state labor laws. This lawsuit is separate from the proposed overtime class action filed in New York federal court in March of this year.
Trainee Claims
Two former Merrill Lynch financial adviser training program participants, Derrick Chambers and Celeste Orozco, filed the recent proposed collective action in California federal court. They are alleging the company regularly scheduled them to work more than 60 hours a week while in the trainee program, but they did not receive overtime wages for their extra hours. The plaintiffs claim the reason they were not paid overtime wages was due to Merrill Lynch’s failure to properly record all of the hours the trainees worked while in the training program. Orozco, located in California, and Chambers, located in New York, claim the company had a nationwide policy and practice of underpaying trainees.
According to their claim, the trainees were not exempt from overtime under the FLSA and were taking part in the company’s three-year program to become financial advisers. Trainees who took part in the program from August 2011 to present may be eligible to opt into the collective action.
Training Overtime
The FLSA and state labor laws require employers to compensate all nonexempt employees for all of the time spent working. This requirement includes time spent in meetings and in training unless the meetings or trainings meet four criteria. If the training is voluntary, outside of normal hours, not job related and no other work is concurrently performed, then an employer does not need to compensate the employee for time spent in the training. However, in the case of the Merrill Lynch financial adviser trainees, the training was required, job related, and was intended to help grow the trainee’s business, so work was concurrently being performed. Based on the four criteria for not paying overtime for training, it does appear that the financial adviser trainees should have received overtime wages if they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek.
If you believe your employer is not paying you for all of the hours you work or you are not receiving one and a half times your regular rate when you work overtime, you may have a wage or overtime pay claim. Our experienced team of overtime pay lawyers can be reached at (855) 754-2795. Or you may complete our Free Unpaid Overtime Case Review form and our legal team will evaluate your claim. 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.