A federal judge has ruled that a class of information technology workers in California was exempt from overtime and has granted the employer summary judgment on the overtime claims. That this occurred in California is fairly significant as that State has been a breeding ground for numerous class actions, many of them involving computer workers. What is even more significant is that the federal judge had conditionally certified this class in January as a proper class, but now, upon a motion to de-certify the class, changed her mind.
The workers were database administrators, programmers and analysts, who claimed that their work was primarily “production work” and thus did not qualify for either the executive or administrative exemptions. The court disagreed, finding that they were not “merely” doing production work but performed operations and functions important to the business operations of the employer, Electronic Data Systems.
The plaintiffs also asserted that they were closely supervised and did not possess or exercise the independent judgment necessary to classify the work as exempt. The judge agreed that the workers were supervised, but decided that their work did require the utilization of considerable independent judgment and discretion.
I wonder why defendants did not argue that the workers fell under the computer exemption as well. Even if they were salaried, rather than hourly, these employees, if they performed the requisite computer duties called for by the exemption test, would have nevertheless fit within the administrative and/or professional exemptions. In any case, it is reassuring to see a federal court delve into the details of the actual job duties of a group of workers, stack those duties up against the (still hard to interpret) regulations governing exemptions and reach a correct conclusion.