[ by Melanie Gretchen and Howard Haykin ]

Bank of America agreed to settle a class action involving overtime pay for current and former Merrill Lynch sales assistants.  The employees' complaint against the Charlotte, NC-based bank was that its brokerage unit violated federal and state law by failing to compensate them for extra hours worked.

The settlement, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, calls for the bank to pay $12 million to the class action participants.  Nancy Martignago, a sale assistant for Merrill Lynch in Ft. Worth, TX, had worked for the firm since 1985, when she charged Merrill with denying requests for overtime pay by her and her fellow client associates, who provide administrative and sales support to the firm's financial advisors.  She claimed that she frequently worked more than 40 hours a week but that the company failed to pay her for the overtime or to record her working hours accurately.

The settlement terms are subject to court approval.  The $12 million payment is expected to be applied to about 12,000 current and former sales assistants who worked for Merrill Lynch since February 2006.  About 90% of those assistants are women.  

[C-I Note: Does that reflect sexism or fewer complaints by men?  Probable answer: sexism.  How satisfied are BofA client associates now?   Probable Answer:  Not thrilled, but pleased to be getting some "new-found" money.  For those who were involved in the lawsuit, they are pleased to have this distraction over and done with.]

For further details, go to [American Banker, 2/19/13].