Summary:
On Friday March 6, 2020, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit against Wells Fargo Bank for unpaidwages and other damages for Mortgage Consultants employed by the bank in the New York area and nationwide. The lawsuit specifically seeks to recover unpaid minimum and overtime wages, agreed upon wages, commissions, unlawful deductions, spread-of hours pay and other damages under the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) for the bank’s Mortgage Consultants. Affected employees include, but are not limited to, Home Mortgage Consultants, Home Mortgage Consultants, Jr., Private Mortgage Bankers or Private Mortgage Bankers, Jr. that were employed with Wells Fargo Bank between March 6, 2014 and the date of final judgment in this matter.
The complaint alleges that even though Wells Fargo had given its Mortgage Consultants a pay policy noted in offer letters of an hourly wage, incentive pay (including commissions) plus a premium for recorded overtime hours, they had aconstantly changing Compensation Plan that governed and dictated their pay structure. Regardless of its promised pay policy in its offer letter and several updates to the Compensation Plan, the manner in which Wells Fargo continued to calculate the Mortgage Consultant’s wages remained the same. The bank has allegedly violated several aspects of the NYLL which included consistently carrying over guaranteed hourly pay to the next month and then improperly recapturing the guaranteed pay and hourly pay against commissions earned from the Mortgage Consultants. Additionally, Mortgage Consultants were required to spend significant time off the clock taking and receiving phone calls and e-mails, processing loan applications, as well as other paper work. Due to Well Fargo management instructing Mortgage Consultants to only record a certain amount of hours, instead of the hours actually worked, consultants regularly worked over 40 hours per week without proper compensation. Furthermore, they were required to attend training, compliance and sales meetings, for which they were also unpaid. The bank also failed to take into account all compensation when calculating the proper overtime rate paid to Mortgage Consultants when working over 40 hours in one workweek. Additionally, the complaint alleges unlawful deductions from earned commissions, such as deductions for mailings, website placement, advertising leads, and uncollected fees, as well as arbitrarily reducing commission percentages for circumstances like “initial file quality”, and bank leads.
If you’ve worked for Wells Fargo Bank as Home Mortgage Consultant, Home Mortgage Consultant, Jr., Private Mortgage Banker, or Private Mortgage Banker, Jr., please give us a call at (212) 300-0375 to see if you are eligible to join this matter. Similarly, if you work in the finance industry and find you may be experiencing similar violations, give Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP a call at (212) 300-0375 for free phone consultation to discuss your potential claims. For additional information, feel free to visit our website here.
You may also view the filed complaint here.