Sales reps sue drug makers for overtime pay
Several pharmaceutical companies have been sued by sales representatives who say they were improperly denied overtime.
In some of the lawsuits filed around the country, sales representatives have said their job responsibilities entailed promoting and marketing drugs to doctors, rather than sales, meaning they don’t fall under a labor act provision exempting outside salespeople from overtime.
While overtime lawsuits used to be relatively rare in Delaware, they are becoming more common, and an increasing number are being filed by white-collar workers over the issue of whether they were properly classified as exempt, said Scott Holt, a lawyer whose firm has represented one drug maker, AstraZeneca, on employment issues.
One class-action lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Wilmington on behalf of Timothy Carson of Rockaway Park, N.Y., and other current and former AstraZeneca sales representatives, alleges AstraZeneca violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay them overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a week.
Federal and state law require that workers be paid 1 1/2 times their usual pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week, unless they fall under one of the act’s exemptions.
At issue in the lawsuit, filed Wednesday, which did not specify the amount of damages sought, is whether AstraZeneca improperly treated as exempt sales representatives like Carson, who worked for AstraZeneca in New York from 2003 to 2005.
“I think it’s a widespread practice among players in the pharmaceutical industry,” said Herbert Mondros of Margolis Edelstein in Wilmington and one of Carson’s attorneys. As many as 8,000 current and former AstraZeneca sales representatives could be affected, according to Carson’s lawyers.
Laura King, an AstraZeneca spokeswoman, would not address the specifics of the lawsuit. “We adhere to the laws and regulations of all the states where we do business,” King said. “We value the talents and contributions of our employees. We’ll defend our position vigorously.”
Another class action lawsuit against AstraZeneca, which has its U.S. headquarters in Fairfax, Del., was filed Wednesday in federal district court in Pittsburgh by a Scranton, Pa., resident. In December, the drug maker was targeted in another overtime-related suit.