Our plaintiffs... accepted their individual offers and then more plaintiffs came forward in the newly filed case to assert their claims to overtime pay as well
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) January 22, 2014
On Thursday, January 16, 2014, field service specialists filed an overtime lawsuit against QIAGEN, Inc. This is the second lawsuit field service specialists have filed against the company in the past two months. The employees filed the first lawsuit, Childs, et al. v. QIAGEN, Inc., Court File No. 1:13-cv-01229 (W.D.N.Y.), as a putative collective action in late December 2013. According to the Court’s docket in Childs, QIAGEN offered the two named plaintiffs substantial money ($85,000.00 to the named plaintiff) in the first lawsuit to settle and dismiss their individual overtime claims. Plaintiffs’ counsel Rachhana T. Srey stated, “After our plaintiffs in the Childs case accepted their individual offers, more plaintiffs came forward in the newly filed case to assert their claims to overtime pay as well. Is it our opinion that more field service specialists will continue to come forward to recover their overtime pay once they learn about these settlement offers.” The second case is entitled, Maag, et al. v. QIAGEN, Inc., Court File No.: 14-0380 (C.D. Cal.).
According to the Maag complaint, once the first lawsuit was filed, QIAGEN changed its overtime pay policies and started paying overtime to its field service specialists effective January 16, 2014.
The current lawsuit has been brought as a collective action as well and seeks overtime pay for all current and former field service specialists, instrument service specialists, and other job titles performing similar duties for the past three years.
QIAGEN is a California company with an office in Valencia, California, and its headquarters in Germantown, Maryland. It provides sample and assay technologies for molecular diagnostics, applied testing, and academic and pharmaceutical research, and employs field service specialists throughout the United States.
Plaintiffs are represented by Rachhana T. Srey from Nichols Kaster, PLLP in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Jesse S. Brar of Preston & Brar, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Additional information is located at http://www.nka.com or may be obtained by contacting Nichols Kaster, PLLP toll free at (877) 448-0492 or at intake(at)nka(dot)com.