Plaintiffs v Erie Indemnity
Judge Preliminarily Approves Class-Action Overtime Suit Against Erie Indemnity
A federal judge has given preliminary approval for a class-action lawsuit to proceed against Erie Indemnity Co. over allegations that it failed to pay overtime to claims adjusters in a Pittsburgh-area office.
The lead plaintiff, John Stanislaw, charges that since February 2006, claims adjusters in the Murrysville office have been denied overtime pay because management altered electronic pay records or knowingly failed to record or pay hours that adjusters worked outside the office.
Stanislaw first filed the lawsuit alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act in August 2007. He recently convinced U.S. District Court Judge Sean J. McLaughlin to certify the case as a class-action lawsuit.
McLaughlin said in a Sept. 17 ruling that Stanislaw, 41, had presented enough evidence to pursue his claim that other claims adjusters had been similarly treated by Erie Indemnity Co. Erie Indemnity is the management arm of Erie Insurance Group, one of Erie County's largest employers.
McLaughlin ordered that the parties now submit a proposed notice that will be advertised and mailed to the affected employees from the Murrysville office. Those employees may then seek to join the suit and share in any proceeds, should the plaintiffs prevail in the litigation.
The case concerns only workers in Erie Indemnity's Murrysville office, about 18 miles west of Pittsburgh.
Stanislaw, of Fairbank, near Washington, Pa., worked as a claims adjuster from April 2000 to Feb. 28, 2007, when he was fired, according to court records.
He claims that in 2004, Erie Indemnity Co. changed his job and that of his fellow Murrysville claims adjusters from salaried to hourly positions.
He said that he and other claims adjusters, as hourly employees, regularly worked more than 40 hours a week without being paid the approximately $40 an hour they were entitled to be paid for their overtime.
He said managers instructed claims adjusters not to put overtime on their timecards and knew that workers were reporting fewer hours than they actually worked.
One claims adjuster has testified in a deposition that he routinely worked 50 hours a week but was ordered to report only seven and a half hours of work each day, regardless of how many hours he had worked. Others reported that they routinely worked through their lunch hours and in the evenings and on weekends, without recording those hours. They said management knew they worked those hours but never ordered them to report the time.
Stanislaw said he was fired in February 2007 after repeatedly complaining about the company's handling of claims adjusters' overtime.
For more information please contact:
Joseph Chivers
312 Boulevard of the Allies Fl 6
Suite 600
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-1923
Phone: 412-227-0763
800-508-5367 (Toll Free)
Fax: 412-281-8481
