Wells Fargo Owes Loan Adjusters for Off-the-Clock Work, Class Action Claims

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A former Wells Fargo employee claims in a proposed class action that she and other non-exempt loan adjusters are owed unpaid minimum and overtime wages for work performed off-the-clock and during meal and rest breaks.

According to the lawsuit out of California, defendants Wells Fargo & Company and Wells Fargo Bank, National Association required call center-based loan adjusters to spend 10 to 15 minutes starting up their computers and loading programs before the beginning of each shift. The plaintiff claims these tasks were performed before employees were able to clock in for their shifts and therefore went unpaid. Similarly, loan adjusters spent two to five minutes logging out and shutting down their computers after the end of each shift without pay, the case alleges.

The lawsuit argues that the defendants faced “no practical administrative difficulty” in recording employees’ additional pre- and post-shift work, nor in estimating the average time workers spend performing such tasks. Instead, the case claims, Wells Fargo acted “intentionally and oppressively” toward loan adjusters in refusing to pay for all hours worked, “with a conscious disregard of their rights.”

Moreover, the plaintiff argues that she and other loan adjusters were frequently unable to take statutory meal and rest breaks or were interrupted during their breaks due to customer demand. In other instances, the plaintiff claims, she and other loan djusters were reprimanded by the defendants for taking breaks “longer than five minutes.” The plaintiff says that after she complained about working through meal and rest breaks, she was told by supervisors that because the call center was short-staffed, there was “nothing that could be done.” The case claims that as a result of the defendants’ alleged failure to provide proper breaks, loan adjusters are owed unpaid minimum, overtime, and shift differential pay, as well as one hour of pay at each employee’s regular rate for each day during which a break was not provided.

The plaintiff seeks to represent all non-exempt loan adjusters who worked for Wells Fargo in California within the past four years and until the lawsuit is resolved.