FileHippo News

The latest software and tech news

Last November, the Hewlett Packard Company was hit with a string of lawsuits over a case of the purchasing of a subsidiary company Autonomy,... Employees Suing HP for No Overtime Pay

Last November, the Hewlett Packard Company was hit with a string of lawsuits over a case of the purchasing of a subsidiary company Autonomy, which is still unsettled. Unfortunately for HP, 2013 isn’t starting out much better.

The company is now under a class action lawsuit filed by a group of technical support employees for misclassifying the tech workers so that they are not acknowledged for being qualified for overtime pay. The group of Plaintiffs, led by HP employee Eric Benedict, claims the misclassification was deliberate. They have filed their case with Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP. These employees were wrongly classified as exempt employees rather that nonexempt.

Employees Suing HP for No Overtime Pay

The law firm first gained recognition from a successful, $65 million lawsuit against IBM in 2006.
This issue doesn’t deal with failure of contractual obligations, but the accusations are just as serious.

According to business insiders, this is not only a public relations debacle, but a human resources disaster. The downward spiral for Hewlett Packard began back in November when a number of stockholders accused HP of mismanagement. Also, with the acquisition Electronic Data Systems, a technology advisement company, which seems to not be worth the $13 billion investment, HP is facing a severe crisis. These recent events have caused HP stock prices to plummet and consumer confidence is at an all time low.

The US Department of Justice is conducting an investigation into HP’s business practices after the purchase of the business intelligence software firm Autonomy. This company was purchased for $11.7 billion, but HP later found out that this price was overinflated and the actual price of the Autonomy was worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $8.7 billion.

Hp has opted not to comment on this grievance at this time. The lawsuit, entitled Benedict v. Hewlett-Packard Company, Case No. 13-0119, was filed in United States District Court in San Francisco, California.

[Image via rredc]