NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Schering Plough
pharmaceutical representatives won a complete victory in Federal
Court in a Nationwide Collective Law Suit. The law firms of Joseph,
Herzfeld, Hester & Kirschenbaum, Kingsley & Kingsley and
attorney Michael Dichiara represent the plaintiffs. The suit
charged that plaintiffs often worked in excess of 40 hours a week
but received an annual salary without overtime pay at the mandatory
rate of time and one half. The amount to be distributed to
the class will be determined by the Court, but will likely include
double damages for the violation. The federal class action was
filed on behalf of all pharma reps who worked for BMS during the
last three years, anywhere in the United States.
Attorney Charles Joseph, a partner with Joseph, Herzfeld,
stated, “The US Department of Labor recognizes that pharmaceutical
reps are not exempt from overtime pay,” adding that the
department has filed at least four friend of the court briefs in
support of overtime compensation for pharma reps.
Joseph explained that the precedent for the class claim was set
in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which found
earlier this year that Novartis pharma reps were entitled to
overtime compensation on the same grounds alleged against Schering
Plough. The US Supreme Court refused to hear the drug companies’
appeals. The Second Circuit issued a similar ruling in a case
brought by pharma reps against Schering Plough, as have district
courts in Connecticut, Illinois, Florida and Texas in cases against
Boehringer Ingelheim, Abbott, and Auxilum Pharmaceuticals. But,
said attorney Dichiara, this ruling is the first of its kind as it
found that reps are not exempt under any of the parts of the
exemption. Schering had to prove all the parts of the
exemption, but it lost on all points.
“This company has violated the labor law, and is now being held
accountable by the Cour
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