Overview
A class action lawsuit was filed on May 17, 2018 against Fidelity Investments Institutional Operations Company, Inc., FMR LLC, Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Fidelity Workplace Investing LLC, and Veritude LLC (“Fidelity”), on behalf of workers in call centers supporting Fidelity’s Workplace Services business nationwide. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, the lawsuit asserts that Fidelity, which has more than 40,000 employees, violates the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), as well as state wage and hour laws in North Carolina and New Mexico.
On January 8, 2020, the U.S. District Court granted final approval to a $3 million settlement in this Fair Labor Standards Act class action.
Case Background
The lawsuit, Reynolds v. Fidelity, asserts that Fidelity has failed to pay its hourly call center workers all overtime due under federal and state wage and hour law. The suit alleges that Fidelity did not compensate plaintiffs for all mandatory pre-shift work, in particular booting up computers, launching several software programs, checking emails, reviewing call schedules, and other tasks that had to be completed in order to be “call ready,” meaning ready to answer calls. Plaintiffs allege they only received compensation after this work had been completed. Plaintiffs assert that this is compensable time that should have been added to the workers’ recorded hours, and that all hours over 40 per work week should have been paid at the overtime premium rate.
Plaintiffs also complain that Fidelity excludes nondiscretionary quarterly bonuses, and compensation such as student loan reimbursements and fitness reimbursements, when calculating plaintiffs’ regular and overtime rates, and thus failed to pay overtime at the correct rate.
Plaintiffs were represented by attorneys from Cohen Milstein and The Law Offices of Gilda A. Hernandez, PLLC.
The case name is: Reynolds et al v. Fidelity Investments Institutional Operations Company, Inc. et al., Case No. 1:18-cv-00423, U.S. District Court, Middle District of North Carolina