HP Named in Class Action Suit Related to Misclassification of Technical Workers, Overtime Pay Issues

Attorney Jahan C. Sagafi of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and Adam T. Klein of Outten & Golden LLP announced the filing today of a class action lawsuit charging that Hewlett-Packard Company ("HP") HPQ has a common practice of misclassifying its technical support workers as exempt and failing to pay them for all overtime hours worked in violation of federal overtime pay laws. HP employs several thousand technical support workers nationwide. Many of these employees worked at smaller companies, such as Autonomy, Palm, Electronic Data Systems (EDS), 3Com, ArcSight, and 3PAR, that have recently been acquired by HP. “HP's success and substantial revenue come from the hard work and long hours of its technical support workers, who keep information technology infrastructure up and running,” stated plaintiff Eric Benedict. “HP should not be allowed to underpay these workers in violation of the law.” Plaintiff's counsel Jahan Sagafi noted, “This lawsuit seeks fair compensation for the thousands of HP technical workers who form the backbone of the company. Their tireless overtime work, which we allege has been unpaid, has helped fuel HP's success.”