LEO Pharma sales reps file suit on overtime in USA

Attorneys from Sanford Wittels & Heisler have filed a class action complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of four former sales representatives and other similarly-situated employees at LEO Pharma Inc, the US unit of Denmark’s privately-held LEO Pharma.

The suit details the foreign pharmaceutical company's denial of the reps' basic overtime pay and other wage and hour practices that violate the US Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state overtime laws in New York, California and Washington and comes just weeks after winning preliminary approval of a $99 million dollar settlement on behalf of Novartis Pharmaceuticals sales representatives (The Pharma Letter January 25).

"LEO Pharma willfully misclassifies its sales representatives as exempt from the benefits of federal and state wage and hour laws," said Deborah Marcuse, an attorney at Sanford Wittels & Heisler (SWH) who represents the four named plaintiffs and the class. "The LEO reps worked well over 40 hours per week but have not received any overtime pay. Their misclassification deprives them of the overtime pay and other work-related benefits to which they are legally entitled. Such egregious practices allow the company to enrich its bottom line at the expense of the economic wellbeing of its sales force, which is intolerable," she argued.