Overtime Lawsuits On Behalf of Loan Underwriters and IT Analysts

As mentioned in the overtime discussion on this website, there currently are a number of lawsuits regarding whether loan underwriters are exempt from state and federal overtime requirements. The issue here, as in many overtime lawsuits, is whether underwriters have real discretion in their job performance (in which case they may be overtime exempt) or whether they are more akin to clerical workers performing routine administrative tasks (in which case they are entitled to overtime). Here is an article about another loan underwriter class action brought against JP Morgan. Apparently JP Morgan attempted to circumvent the issue by writing job descriptions for their underwriters that bore no real relationship to the underwriters' actual job duties.

According to another article, a similar case against Lockheed has been brought on behalf of its network data communications analysts. Here, however, although the analysts apparently exercised significant discretion in their jobs, the lawsuit argues that they were in a production role and not a general administrative role. Generally, workers engaged in the production of a company's products, as opposed to those in charge of overall corporate administration, are entitled to overtime.