PITTSBURGH - A federal judge's ruling raises the stakes on a labor lawsuit against a global business and technology firm.
Pittsburgh judge William Stickman IV on March 10 certified the lawsuit of Michael Thomas and others against TEKsystems as a collective action and certified classes of employees in four states.
They claim TEK failed to pay them overtime wages and sued in 2021 under the Fair Labor Standards Act. TEK now faces the possibility of a class action settlement if it chooses to stop fighting the allegations.
Plaintiffs say there are 336 Pennsylvania class members, 194 in Washington, 294 in New York and 137 in Massachusetts.
"Litigating this case in the form of four class actions spares the Court the burden of having to decide hundreds of sufficiently similar individual actions," Stickman wrote.
"TEK argues that the existence of the FLSA collective action proves that joinder is practicable. This argument fails. The existence of an FLSA collective action does not undermine the certification of a Rule 23 class action. Courts in the Third Circuit routinely certify FLSA collectives and class actions in the same litigation."
The firms Werman Salas and Lichten & Liss-Riordan will be made class counsel.
TEK says it places workers with specific skills at its clients' companies. It uses recruiters to identify potential candidates who meet the requirements for open positions with its clients.
Recruiters start as trainees and are paid overtime wages if they work more than 40 hours in a week. But when they are no longer trainees, TEK says they are exempt from state and federal overtime requirements.
Recruiters pass suggestions to account managers, who ultimately decide which candidates to present to clients. The plaintiffs, recruiters, say this makes them entry-level employees owed overtime.
TEK says there is more to the recruiter position that prevents them from being considered "entry-level," like developing recruiting strategies, negotiating compensation packages and managed employees while on assignment.
Recruiters are expected to work 45-60 hours per week to meet weekly quotas. To be decided in the case is whether the recruiters are exempt from overtime under an administrative exemption in the FLSA.