Kelly M. Dermody of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, announced that current and former Wells Fargo technical support workers throughout the United States are a significant step closer to recovering pay for overtime hours they worked. Yesterday, Judge Claudia Wilken of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted plaintiffs` motion for certification of the case as a collective action. The complaint charges that the workers should have been paid overtime for hours worked over 40 per week.

"Wells Fargo became one of the nation`s largest banks in large part because of the hard work and dedication of its employees, including those that keep its computer systems operating properly," stated Aaron Cooper, one of the
plaintiffs. "I am glad that my fellow IT support workers can join the case and have the opportunity to get paid for the many hours of overtime they have worked for many years."

"In granting certification, the Court conditionally recognizes that these employees have similar job duties, such that addressing their claims in a single action - rather than many individual lawsuits - is appropriate," noted Ms. Dermody. "We look forward to proving at trial that Wells Fargo misclassified certain IT workers under federal and state wage and hour laws as exempt from overtime pay."

The next step in the litigation the providing of notice to class members. A one-page form, called a "consent to join form," will be sent by U.S. mail and email to the several thousand employees, within nine days of today. Each
employee should protect his or her rights by returning the form to the plaintiffs` counsel. Until an individual sends in that form, his or her statute of limitations (the time period for which overtime pay can be recovered) continues to run.

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