By Bill Donahue
Law360, New York (April 05, 2013, 1:11 PM ET)
-- Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA Inc. will pay $4.3 million to resolve allegations that it violated state and federal labor laws by underpaying overtime to hundreds of technical support employees, according to a settlement filed Thursday in Texas federal court.
The deal will wrap up more than two years of litigation over whether Konica Minolta breached the Fair Labor Standards Act and state laws in Illinois, Massachussetts and New York by requiring training, extensive travel and other extra activities without additional compensation.
The settlement, first reached in February, will certify a Rule 23 class of approximately 800 workers on the state law claims and certify a collective of roughly 250 employees on the FLSA claims.
In taking the immediate payout, the plaintiffs said they believed in their case but wanted to avoid the risks of ongoing litigation.
“This case is now over two years old and, with continued litigation, motion practice, and appeals, could easily last additional years,” the employees said in the settlement papers. “When balanced against the tremendous time and cost associated with continued litigation, the immediate recovery provided for with this settlement favors a determination that the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate.”
A spokeswoman for Konica Minolta didn't immediately return a request for comment Friday.
Under the settlement, Konica Minolta will pay $85,000 in incentive payments to 11 named plaintiffs, with individuals getting between $5,000 and $20,000. Galvin B. Kennedy of Kennedy Hodges LLP, lead counsel for the class, and other plaintiffs attorneys will get up to $157,438 — or 32 percent of the total deal — for their work on the case.
One technician, John Glass, who took an early lead in the case and was terminated shortly after the launch of the suit, will get an additional $106,000 to drop retaliation claims against the company.
“Glass was the only [named plaintiff] who was a current employee at the time he became part of the lawsuit as a class representative [and] was the only class representative who ran the risk of retaliation,” the settlement said. “He became a class representative on May 18, 2010. Six days later, on May 24, 2010, KMBS terminated his employment after having worked with the company for approximately 10 years.”
The filing said Konica Minolta “vigorously disputes” the allegation and that it still maintains that Glass was fired for “reasons wholly unrelated” to the case.
The service technicians first sued in March 2010, claiming they'd been forced to attend training classes, had been made to conduct inventory and spent time traveling to and from client locations, but didn't get extra pay because they were improperly classified as exempt from the FLSA's overtime requirements.
Several other state law cases were filed around the same time, and all have been folded into the current case. The settlement filed Thursday must still be approved by the court.
Konica was represented by Haynes Boone LLP and Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
The class was represented by Galvin B. Kennedy of Kennedy Hodges LLP.
The case is Watson et al v. Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc., case number 4:10-cv-00986, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
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