Three hundred
Farmers Insurance claims investigators have been conditionally certified as a class in their quest to prove they shouldn’t be exempt from overtime.
US Magistrate Judge Elizabeth D. Laporte said she would let the investigators send notice to three groups of Farmers employees – special investigators, general special investigators and senior investigators – inviting them to opt into the lawsuit.
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The lawsuit alleges that Farmers, despite prior litigation, continues to misclassify investigators as exempt from overtime pay. According to the complaint, investigators look into insurance claims and write reports based on the results of their investigations, but they don’t offer opinions or recommendations – meaning they don’t have the “independent judgment” authority that would make them administratively exempt from overtime.
A federal court in Minnesota found several years ago that Farmers had misclassified its agents as exempt, but the insurer has yet to change its policy.
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