COURT FINDS THAT LOAN UNDERWRITERS ARE ENTITLED TO OVERTIME PAY

In a significant victory for workers in the mortgage industry, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has held that underwriters for J.P. Morgan Chase had been misclassified as exempt, when in fact, they were non-exempt.  The bank had argued that it was not required to pay underwriters overtime pay because they were “exempt” under the “administrative exemption” to the wage and hour laws.  The Court disagreed, finding that loan underwriters are not administrative employees, but rather production employees doing “production” work involving loan sales. The court concluded that J.P. Morgan Chase had been misclassifying the underwriters as exempt employees – meaning they were not exempt and the bank should have been paying them overtime pay as required under the FLSA.  The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that most American workers receive overtime pay (at time and a half) if they work over 40 hours per week – unless their job falls under an exemption, such as the “administrative” exemption claimed by Chase.

These types of cases turn on an analysis of a worker’s actual job duties and responsibilities.  In the J.P. Morgan case, the plaintiffs were underwriters whose duties involved approving loans in accordance with guidelines provided by the bank.  The court stated, “Underwriters were given a loan application and followed procedures specified in the Credit Guide in order to produce a yes or no decision”…”Their work is not related either to setting ‘management policies’ nor to ‘general business operations’ …, but rather concerns the ‘production’ of loans — the fundamental service provided by the bank.” So, the court concluded, the nature of the underwriters’ work was production rather than  administrative.

 A similar class action lawsuit has also been filed alleging that MetLife Bank Home Loan underwriters have been misclassified as exempt and thus not paid for all overtime hours worked in violation of federal overtime pay laws.  While MetLife Home Loans recently reclassified its underwriters as non-exempt and started paying them overtime, the company did not pay them for the overtime hours they worked prior to being reclassified. Understandably, the employees seek to recover their unpaid overtime wages that they are entitled to and that should have been paid to them in the past when the overtime hours were actually worked.

If you are a current or former loan underwriter and believe that you may have a claim or would like to get more information, please call us at 1-866-559-0400, email us at  mlore@overtime-flsa.comor submit your information using our convenient Case Evaluation form for a FREE and CONFIDENTIAL review of your circumstances.