Lawsuit Claims Bayer Owes Unpaid Overtime

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A more than 20-year Bayer Corporation employee alleges in a proposed collective/class action that he and similarly situated site maintenance workers are owed unpaid overtime wages. 

The plaintiff, who worked for Bayer from May 1997 through July 2020, claims in the 12-page complaint that the multinational pharmaceutical giant has, since at least November 2017, “knowingly suffered and permitted” hourly site maintenance department workers to work “unrecorded, uncompensated” overtime hours in violation of Pennsylvania and federal wage and hour laws. 

According to the lawsuit, the reasons for the alleged unrecorded work hours stem from the defendant’s failure to provide “clear instructions” regarding what is and is not considered and recorded as “work time.” Further, the suit says Bayer also erred with its policy of having hourly employees enter shift times in their time records instead of actual work times and of having time records reflect the total hours worked weekly instead of the actual number of hours worked in a given day. 

The case also links the allegedly unpaid overtime to Bayer’s apparent policy prohibiting overtime unless “the job required it” and management approved it, “regardless of how many hours it actually took” hourly employees to complete a particular assignment. Lastly, the lawsuit claims the unpaid overtime was the result of Bayer’s policy of excluding lunch time, typically one hour, from recordable work time regardless of whether hourly employees worked through all or part of their lunch period.

“Defendant knew that these policies … individually and cumulatively, resulted in the under-reporting of work time and, in turn, the underpayment of overtime wages otherwise due,” the complaint alleges. “Alternatively, Defendant reasonably should have known that these policies … individual and cumulatively, resulted in the under-reporting of work time and, in turn, the underpayment of overtime wages otherwise due.” 

Per the case, the plaintiff was one of more than 15 site maintenance workers who reported to Bayer’s Pittsburgh office and was paid a salary. The plaintiff and similarly situated employees, who used the same time-keeping system, were considered non-exempt from overtime pay under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act (PMWA), the suit says, noting proposed class members regularly worked upward of 40 hours per week. 

As a result of Bayer’s time-keeping policies, the company has also failed to pay hourly site maintenance workers all regular wages due in non-overtime workweeks, the suit further claims.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff plans on amending the complaint with claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act stemming from a charge of age discrimination the individual filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on November 12. 

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s newsletter here.