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Posted February 12th, 2013. Daiichi Sankyo, a maker of cholesterol and blood pressure drugs, is now a defendant in a case filed before a federal court in San Francisco yesterday. Six current and former female sales representatives employed in the Japanese firm’s North American division are accusing the company of gender discrimination in the workplace. According to the lawsuit, the women are underpaid compared to their male counterparts; they are promoted much more slowly than men are; and pregnant women, as well as mothers with young children, are treated worse than other employees. The other plaintiffs, on the other hand, said that they were demoted, fired or forced to resign, recounting their own experiences while at the employment of Daiichi Sankyo. For its part, the U.S. headquarters of Daiichi Sankyo, through a female spokesperson, said that it complies with all laws regarding equal opportunity and nondiscrimination. The company currently has about 3,000 employees in the United States. This article originally appeared in the The Japan Daily Press.

Posted February 11th, 2013. SAN FRANCISCO — The plaintiffs lawyers that once secured the largest-ever award in a gender discrimination suit from a Cravath, Swaine and Moore client have a new target: Japanese pharmaceutical firm Daiichi Sankyo. The firm’s sales strategy, the complaint alleges, relies on using attractive women to promote drugs, and male executives treat female employees as “props.” Daiichi Sankyo’s actions are a “primer on how a company should not operate or treat female employees,” states the complaint in Wellens v. Daiichi Sankyo, 13-581. Janette Wipper, managing partner of Sanford Heisler’s San Francisco office, said the pharmaceutical industry has a pattern of gender discrimination in its sales ranks. Wipper worked on a similar case against Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., which resulted in a record jury verdict of $250 million in 2010 and ultimately settled for roughly $175 million. To settle the case, Novartis, represented by Cravath, agreed to pay more than $100 million to class members and to implement new policies for training, evaluating and promoting employees. The company employs approximately 3,000 people in the United States and sells drugs to treat cardiovascular disease, diabetes and melanoma. However, while men were fast-tracked for promotion and received perks and mentoring, […]

Posted January 24th, 2013. Jan 24 (Reuters) – An attorney on Thursday filed a $5 million lawsuit accusing Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr of gender and age discrimination and of wrongfully terminating her for taking leave after adopting a child. “Levinson’s claims are completely without merit and we will vigorously defend the firm,” Susan Murley, the law firm’s co-managing partner, said in a statement. After being promoted from associate to counsel in January 2008, her prospects diminished, despite meeting the firm’s promotion criteria, the complaint said. In 2011, Levinson took leave to adopt a 22-month-old girl from China. The lawsuit alleges that when Levinson returned to work she received her first negative evaluation and a cut in annual bonus. Her job was ultimately terminated. Levinson seeks back and front pay, compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorney fees. For Levinson: David Sanford and Brandon Jamison of Sanford Heisler. This article was originally published by Thomson Reuters News and Insight.

Posted December 11th, 2012. A federal lawsuit against Memphis-based retailer City Gear accuses the company with violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by misclassifying employees to avoid paying overtime. Attorneys for the Sanford Heisler firm, which has offices in New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC, filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Nashville on Tuesday. The complaint further alleges that managers and assistant managers who put in fewer than 45 hours a week do not receive salaried compensation, but instead are paid hourly wages. And salaried or exempt employees who are paid by the hour if they fall below 45 hours a week are not paid overtime if they clock more than 40 hours a week. The complaint seeks back pay and damages for managers and assistant managers at any of City Gear’s divisions, dating to December 2009. Plaintiffs’ attorneys estimate that at least 200 employees may be affected. “We’re only able to go back three years and the clock is ticking, so we’re encouraging people to contact us right away if they’ve been affected by these practices,” Melzer said. “We have to move quickly.” “I haven’t seen the suit yet, but City Gear has always complied with […]

Congress needs to act to protect the rights of women by promoting nondiscrimination and advancing equal pay, witnesses testified before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee today. The hearing was called to examine the experience of pay discrimination by American women in the workforce and underscored the critical need to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that will help women better fight pay discrimination. “Equal pay for equal work is about basic fairness,” said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), co-chair of the committee and senior Democratic member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. “It’s important to remember that, when a worker is paid less because of her gender, a family has fewer resources to pay the mortgage, send the kids to college, or have a decent retirement.” Although the wage gap between men and women has narrowed since the passage of the landmark Equal Pay Act in 1963, gender-based wage discrimination remains a problem for women in the U.S. workforce. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women only make 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. The Institute of Women’s Policy Research found that this wage disparity will cost women anywhere from $400,000 to […]

Posted May 2nd, 2012. As appeared on Cheapest Electricity A class action complaint against Energy Plus has been filed in New Jersey by Sanford Wittels and Heisler for deceiving thousands of New Jersey energy customers with an illegal “bait-and-switch scheme.” Accusations state the company made promises to customers they can save a significant amount by switching energy companies to Energy Plus, but did not deliver on those promises. In fact, reports state some customers paid as much as two or three times more than they paid before switching. Mr. Wittles said he fully suspects the acts were just done in his state of New Jersey but the other states the company services, such as Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. Yue Yu, a New Jersey resident said she was one customer to fall victim to Energy Plus. She said she signed up with the energy provider in September and between the months of November and April, she was overcharged by more than $200. Jeremy Heisler who’s helping lead the council agrees and says, “The company misleads customers to believe that by switching to Energy Plus they will save money compared to receiving energy services from their local […]

Posted May 1st, 2012. Written by: Tanya Gonzalez Posted in Alaska discrimination attorney Janette Wipper, a partner at Sanford Wittels and Heisler, the firm spearheading the case. “Alaska Communications willfully continues to retain the overtime wages owed to these employees despite the Alaska Department of Labor’s unambiguous finding that Ms. Peterson was entitled to overtime pay.” Peterson, an Anchorage resident, worked for Alaska Communications for nearly eight years. She alleges the company routinely deprived her of overtime pay by misclassifying her as an exempt employee. She claims she would work over 60 hours a week without being compensated for overtime. After reviewing the case, the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development determined that Peterson was not an exempt employee and was entitled to unpaid overtime compensation and damages. However, the company has refused to cooperate and a jury trial has been requested. If you have experienced any discrimination or sexual harassment at work, you are entitled to seek legal help. Contact a leading team of discrimination or workplace abuse, you may be entitled to compensation for your pain and suffering. Speak to a hostile workplace attorney immediately to get started on your case.

A Philadelphia-based energy company that promises savings to New Jersey customers who switch from their current providers has been accused of running a “bait and switch” scam in a lawsuit that seeks class action status. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Newark claims that Energy Plus Holdings LLC and an affiliated company, Energy Plus Natural Gas LP, bilked their New Jersey customers out of millions of dollars by overcharging them for electricity and natural gas. The lawsuit, filed by Sanford Wittels and Heisler of Fort Lee, says Kearny resident Yu Yue was persuaded to switch from PSE&G last year after reading an Energy Plus flyer that came in the mail with her Continental One Pass Mileage statement. The flyer said she if she switched she would receive mileage rewards and implied she would likely reduce her energy costs by 10 percent, the lawsuit said. Yu’s electricity and natural gas rates declined in the first month, but then climbed 30 to 71 percent higher than the rates charged by her former provider, according to the complaint. Over a five-month period Yu was allegedly charged $247 more than she would have been charged if she stuck with PSEG. The complaint […]

Jan 25 (Reuters) – Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp has agreed to pay $99 million to settle a lawsuit by current and former sales representatives who claimed they were denied overtime pay despite working more than 40 hours per week. The settlement resolves a 2006 lawsuit now covering more than 7,000 plaintiffs who have worked for the affiliate of Switzerland-based Novartis AG, the law firm for the plaintiffs said. It was reached after the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York concluded in July 2010 that the workers qualified for overtime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The U.S. Supreme Court is likely by this summer to address the same issue after another federal appeals court said similarly situated workers at a unit of Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline Plc were not entitled to overtime pay. Andre Wyss, president of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, in a statement said that while the company believes it pays workers in accordance with applicable federal and state laws, “it is time to resolve these wage and hour claims.” U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty in Manhattan on Tuesday granted preliminary approval to the settlement, which includes attorneys fees of as much as 30 percent, court records show. A hearing […]

More than a year after a federal appeals court ruled that Novartis sales reps are not exempt from overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and, therefore, should be paid overtime (back story), the drugmaker has agreed to a $99 million settlement, according to lawyers for the reps. The move is significant because, until now, drugmakers have been fighting efforts by their current and former sales reps to win overtime pay. The topic has divided the courts and there have been so many conflicting rulings that the US Supreme Court agreed last November to review the debate (look here). A ruling is expected this summer. Ironically, the Supreme Court had earlier declined to review the decision in the Novartis case (here is the 2006 lawsuit filed by the Novartis reps). At issue is whether sales reps are exempt from overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The FLSA overtime compensation requirement does not apply to employees who work as outside salespeople, but the law does require employers to pay overtime for hours worked beyond 40 hours a week, unless a FLSA exemption applies. What are those exemptions? If an employee’s primary duty is to obtain orders or contracts […]