News in Brief August 10 – Wells Fargo, WWE and More

Wells Fargo Employee Break Suit Denied Class Certification

A proposed class action brought against Wells Fargo on behalf of allegedly underpaid employees was denied class certification on Monday. The suit claimed that Wells Fargo didn’t Count breaks of 20 minutes or less toward employees’ total hours worked, stiffing those who worked 40-hour workweeks on overtime pay. Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton dismissed the case because she found that the class would be too diverse and that each employee would need to have his or her breaks considered individually.

WWE Hit with Class Action Over Allegedly Unpaid Royalties

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. just got Buff Blockbuster-ed by former pro wrestler Marcus “Buff” Bagwell. Only instead of a truly epic wrestling move, it’s a proposed class action lawsuit. Bagwell claims that the WWE cheated him, as well as other wrestlers, out of royalties for content played on the WWE network. The lawsuit is looking to compensate more than 100 former wrestlers who didn’t receive the royalty pay outlined in their contracts.

NYU, MIT and Yale Face Lawsuits Over Employee Retirement Plans

The Massachusetts Institute for Technology, Yale and New York University are each facing a proposed class action over the exorbitant fees allegedly charged to employees who opted into the schools’ retirement plans. According to the suits, the universities violated the Employee Retirement Security Act by duplicating record-keeping fees and also selected expensive and poor investment options, thereby breaching the fiduciary duty owed to plan participants. The suit claims that, as a result, workers have lost millions of dollars in retirement funds.