Sales Representatives to Receive $6.7M To Settle OT Claims from Vacation Resorts

Sales Representatives to Receive $6.7M To Settle OT Claims from Vacation Resorts

Sales representatives for a Nevada based resort company have just been able to secure a significant settlement for unpaid wages. The $6.7 million result will resolve claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) that the resort misclassified its sales representatives as exempt from receiving overtime pay. The nearly $7 million settlement will benefit approximately 600 current and former “vacation counselors”or sales reps that worked for Diamond resorts across the nation between 2016 and 2019.

This collective action lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2018, alleged Diamond Resorts worked its sales representatives more than 40 hours per week and had them classified as non-exempt employees, making them ineligible to receive overtime pay. The lawsuit further claims that Diamond Resorts should haveincluded all compensation earned from the computation of their regular rate of pay such as their commissions and bonuses as required by the FLSA. In the initial approval of the settlement the court agreed agreed the workers should be overtime eligible, unlike some sales exemptions, because theywere selling real estate interests and not selling goods or services to consumers that is usually exempt under the FLSA.

If you work in the industry and find yourself working long hours, it may be worth it to see if you may beentitled to receiving overtime pay. Sales representatives could be misclassified and not even know it, leaving significant amounts of hard-earned pay on the table. If you have any concerns about your pay structure, give our firm, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, a call for a free and confidential consultation at (212) 300-0375. You can also visit our website here for an additional helpful information regarding your employment rights.