Insurance Claims Adjusters Are Not Exempt From Overtime
Harris v. Superior Court, 2007 WL 2325580 (Cal. Ct. App. Aug. 16, 2007)
Plaintiffs, members of four coordinated class actions filed against two insurance companies, alleged they were improperly classified as exempt employees in violation of the administrative exemption from the overtime requirements of California law. Applying the Administrative/Production Worker Dichotomy analysis, the Court of Appeal concluded that plaintiffs were primarily engaged in work that fell on the production side of the dichotomy, namely the day-to-day tasks involved in adjusting individual insurance claims. Accordingly, the Court held that plaintiffs were not exempt administrative employees under either Wage Order 4 or Wage Order 4-2001. Cf. Nigg v. USPS, 2007 WL 2410165 (9th Cir. Aug. 27, 2007) (federal postal inspectors are entitled to overtime pay under the FLSA).
