Better Mortgage Failure to Pay Overtime FLSA Collective Action

This is a collective action brought against Better Mortgage Corporation, which does business as Better.com for violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The complaint alleges that when employees worked more than forty hours a week, they were not paid overtime for the additional hours worked.

The Florida FLSA Overtime Class for this action is all Better.com mortgage underwriters working in or based out of Florida who, between January 31, 2019 and January 31, 2022, worked more than forty hours in any given week while working for Better.com, but who were paid on a salary basis and not paid overtime in accordance with the FLSA.

The complaint alleges that Better.com had three policies that led to this action:

• It paid these employees by the job, regardless of the number of hours worked.
• It improperly classified them as “salaried” employees.
• It failed to pay them at overtime rates for each hour they worked over forty, as required by the FLSA.

To bring this kind of collective action, the complaint alleges, three conditions must be met: (1) The plaintiff in the case must be employed by the party being named as defendant. (2) The defendant must be engaged in interstate commerce. (3) The defendant did not pay the plaintiff minimum wage or overtime wages. According to the complaint, in this case, all three conditions have been met.

The complaint claims that the plaintiff in this case, Rosalie Sheehan-Veal, worked as an underwriter for an average of fifty hours per week.

In her job, the complaint alleges, she “routinely and regularly used and/or handled items moving in the stream of commerce. For example, [she] worked as a mortgage underwriter within the state of Florida.”

Better.com did not pay her for all the hours she worked.

Collective actions under the FLSA proceed slightly differently than regular class actions. A notice is issued early to potential members of the class for the action. If they wish to join the case, they must individual consent to sue forms.

The complaint asks for the pausing of the statute of limitations between the date of filing of this case until the deadline for submission of the consent to sue forms. It asks the court for an amount equal to the overtime that should have been paid to the employees, a declaration that the company’s practices are not permitted under the FLSA, attorneys’ costs and fees, and “such further relief as the court deems just and equitable.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Employment
Tags: Employment Violations, Unpaid Overtime