Wipro lawyers shift case to a federal court.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: The lawyers for Wipro, a leading global IT, consulting and business process services company, has got a class action suit filed against it by a former employee, Suri Payala, transferred from the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles, to the United States District Court for the Central District of California, on the grounds that the dispute exceeds more than $5 million, as required by law for the transfer.
The class action lawsuit was brought by Payala, who worked in the California office of Wipro. He alleges several egregious violations by the company – misclassification of employees; failure to pay overtime wages; failure to pay all wages owed every pay period; failure to furnish timely and accurate wage statement; violation of California’s Unfair Competition Act; and failure to pay all wages upon separation. He also alleges that he and other employees in a similar situation like himself, were not paid for meal and rest breaks.
Payala alleges that he and more than 200 other employees like him were not paid for overtime and travel time, even though he was paid less than $7,000 per month for his services, or under the $84,130 salary threshold considered exempt for overtime pay in California.
Payala says he was employed by Wipro as a computer technician with the title of Architect, and was outsourced to DirecTV in California. The lawsuit states he was not paid overtime and was not paid for his travel time to the outsourced job site.
At the heart of the dispute is also Payala’s allegation that Wipro conveniently never told him and other employees the overtime laws of California which would have apprised him of his rights to such compensation over and above his salary.
The class action lawsuit seeks to represent any employee, apart from Payala, who may have performed services for Wipro within a four-year period prior to March 30, 2015.
“Wipro’s business model is extremely profitable, in no small part because it does not pay its employees overtime for work in excess of 40 hours per week as required by the California law,” the lawsuit states.
Payala says Wipro makes more than two times what it pays to its employees when they take on outsourcing work.
Seyfarth Shaw LLP, the lawyers for Wipro, based in Los Angeles, California, in their submission to transfer the case – a copy of which is with The American Bazaar – cite the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), which gives authority to have the federal court to hear cases where the aggregate amount in controversy exceeds $5 million, exclusive of interest and costs. In fact, they pegged the total exceeding $7 million, at the least.
The lawyers for Wipro also made the case giving a breakdown of how they reached that amount, in the scenario where the class action suit entails more than 200 aggrieved current or former employees, like Payala claims, who may be eligible for compensation.
Wipro also gave testimony that Payala’s lowest hourly wage at Wipro was $34.28.
The lawyers for Wipro wrote in the transfer appeal: “Although Defendant denies Plaintiff’s allegations or that he or the putative class are entitled to any relief, based solely on the forgoing calculations for wage statement penalties and overtime wages, the aggregate amount in controversy for the putative class is $7,143,180. Accordingly, Plaintiff’s claims for failure to pay overtime and wage statements alone exceed the amount in controversy required under CAFA.”
(Sujeet Rajan is the Editor-in-Chief of The American Bazaar)
6 Comments
For the benefit of class a page is created with Q&A and contact details of class attorney at wiproclassaction.blogspot.in
For the benifit of the class a blog post is created, updated with current status and class attorney’s contact details.
wiproclassaction.blogspot.in
http://www.wiproclassaction.com
We will keep the post updated with latest information.
I would like add my name in victim list, could you share the contact info
please give me ur gmail id
What happened to Suri! We heard wipro bribed heavily the Suri’s lawyer and other investigating teams.
Me and another few employees are severely victimized & persecuted by Wipro. Please include wantblessings@gmail.com
What happened to Suri! We heard wipro bribed heavily the Suri’s lawyer and other investigating teams.
Me and another few employees are severely victimized & persecuted by Wipro. Please include wantblessings@gmail.com