Ex-Employee Alleges Oklahoma Blood Institute Misclassifies Account Consultants as FLSA-Exempt [UPDATE]
Last Updated on May 8, 2018
Lenore et al v. Oklahoma Blood Institute
Filed: December 11, 2017 ◆§ 5:17cv1326
A former account consultant alleges Oklahoma Blood Institute is responsible for a host of alleged Fair Labor Standards Act violations.
Case Updates
March 26, 2021 – Lawsuit Settled, Dismissed
The proposed class action lawsuit detailed on this page has settled and was subsequently dismissed with prejudice on February 27, 2020.
Chief United States District Judge Timothy D. DeGiusti signed off on the settlement agreement on December 2, 2019. The document states that the agreement “provides a fair and reasonable resolution” to the dispute and demonstrates “a good faith intention by the parties to fully and finally resolve all claims asserted.”
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Oklahoma Blood Institute is the defendant in a proposed collective action filed by a former employee over alleged Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) abuses. The complaint begins by claiming the defendant formally hired the plaintiff in April 2017 as an “Outside Sales Representative/Event Planner,” yet in its employment letter confirmed her position as “Account Consultant I.” Throughout the plaintiff’s relatively short stint with the defendant, the lawsuit continues, she was supposedly referred to at various times as having one of four different job titles—Recruiter, Account Consultant, Mobile Recruiter, and Blood Program Consultant. Moreover, the case says, the plaintiff’s employment letter specified she was a “full-time exempt employee.”
The complaint says the defendant provided the plaintiff with a document titled “Oklahoma Blood Institute Exempt Position Description” that gave the woman no definition as to what “exempt” meant, made no reference to the FLSA, and failed to justify why the company classifies its account consultants as exempt from FLSA regulations. From here, the case goes on to detail the plaintiff’s alleged work environment, in which she says she performed no duties she believed would be involved in the Outside Sales Representative/Event Planner position and functioned more like a standard hourly employee rather than as one exempt from the FLSA.
“In the first month of [the plaintiff’s] employment after her training ended, she was responsible for thirty-two (32) blood drivers,” the complaint says, noting that for each week before the plaintiff’s employment ended she worked at least 41 hours—and sometimes up to 62 hours—without overtime.
Notwithstanding the plaintiff’s frustration with the working conditions described in the complaint, the lawsuit charges the defendant deliberately manipulates the classification of its workers in violation of the FLSA to deprive them of wages.
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