Walsh Construction Company, the giant construction company from Illinois, is being sued for overtime pay by its Project Accountants and several of its Administrative Assistants.
The Administrative Assistants claim that they worked overtime but were never paid for the extra hours. The Project Accountants claim that they were misclassified as exempt professionals when in fact they are not CPAs or fully licensed accountants.
The plaintiffs are represented by Phil Kent and Karen Kravetz, attorneys at the New Haven, Connecticut law firm of Susman, Duffy and Segaloff, P.C. They claim that the Project Accountants are entitled to overtime pay because the work they performed was mostly bookkeeping and not true accounting work. They also claim that the Administrative Assistants were denied overtime pay because of a payroll system that simply failed to read the time sheets before processing.
They have recently filed a motion asking the court to send an official notice to the entire class so that they can learn about the case and join it if they wish. Kravetz explained: “These motions are important so that the class learns about the case and has a chance to join. Most employees don’t know their employer may be violating their rights and when a case like this is filed, it is important to get notice out.”
Walsh has opposed Attorney Kravetz’ motion, arguing that every employee’s overtime claim should be litigated separately. Walsh has also filed a motion to dismiss the claim by the Administrative Assistants claiming that it should not be liable for what it calls “record keeping” violations.
Kravetz is being assisted by the Hayber, McKenna & Dinsmore in Hartford, Connecticut.