JP Morgan Chase Bank NP will pay up to $12 million to settle a potential class action involving some 145,000 current and former Chase tellers, bankers, assistant branch manager trainees, and sales specialists. The complaint, originally filed in a California federal court in 2011, alleges that the bank violated wage and hour provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standard Act as well as state laws in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Details of the settlement were reported on Law360 (subscription required).
Five employees brought individual suits against Chase that were consolidated, all claiming that they were required to work “off the clock,” before and after shifts, and during breaks. They accuse Chase of cheating them out of wages and overtime pay by:
- Discouraging the employees from accurately reporting their hours
- Using an accounting system that converted worked minutes into fractions of an hour, which underreported actual hours worked
- Requiring employees to stay inside their branches when there were cash shortages, periods of time which lasted up to 30 minutes
- Allowing managers to alter employees’ time records
- Not paying for or reimbursing employees for uniforms
Under the terms of the settlements, the named plaintiffs and employees who gave depositions will receive approximately $200,000 as incentive payments. The remaining dollars will be apportioned among the rest of the employees.
Jason J. Thompson
Jason Thompson is a nationally board certified trial attorney and co-chairs Sommers Schwartz’s Complex Litigation Department. He has a formidable breadth of litigation experience, including class action and multidistrict litigation (MDL), and practices nationwide in both state and federal courts.
