An ex-employee has accused Facebook Inc of wrongly classifying employees to avoid paying them for overtime work. The proposed class-action federal lawsuit was brought by Susie Bigger, a former Client Solutions Manager at Facebook's Chicago office.
Bigger accused the company of illegally classifying her and countless other employees as 'managers' to "deprive them of overtime compensation." Her suit states that Facebook has a "systematic, companywide wrongful classification" for employees with the designations of Client Solutions Managers, Customer Solutions Manager, Customer Account Manager, and such positions called CSMs. According to her, the duties associated with these positions are quite similar and none of them are management related.
The duties "involve communicating with existing Facebook advertising customers, implementing their marketing plans, and selling Facebook marketing products and services to existing customers." Their payment comes from "commissions from the sale of Facebook's marketing products," says the lawsuit, as reported by Ars Technica.
"CSMs do not perform duties related to the management or general business operations of Facebook. Rather, CSMs' duties constitute the principal production activity of Facebook as a social media and marketing platform. CSMs' primary duties do not involve the exercise of discretion or independent judgement with respect to matters of significance," claims Bigger's lawsuit.
Companies are lawfully entitled to withhold overtime payment, which is one and half times more than regular pay, for people in management positions. The overtime payment is applicable after 40 hours of work in a week. Facebook has allegedly used this loophole to avoid paying many of its employees for the extra hours they put in.
Susie has asked for back pay, damages, attorney's fees, and interest for several Facebook employees. In response to the legal action, Facebook told Ars Technica that "this lawsuit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously."
Facebook's earnings are scheduled to be announced next week. The social media giant is expected to record $1.29 per share on $9.88 billion for the revenue of the latest quarter.
