Ten mortgage bankers formerly employed by Rocket Mortgage have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Arizona accusing the company of failing to properly pay overtime. The company vehemently dismissed the lawsuit as "baseless."
The lawsuit, filed Jan. 4 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, seeks class action status. It claims that Rocket Mortgage “intentionally failed and/or refused to pay plaintiffs and the collective members all owed overtime according to the provisions” of the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
The plaintiffs consist of nine Arizona residents and one Michigan resident. The Arizona residents are Rachael Gilburd, Andrew Gebhart, Daniel Featherstone, Derek Martin, Angela McGuire, Kori Morin, Katherine Redas, Erin Salava, and Nick Vincent. David Vallejo is the Michigan resident cited.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs were paid hourly wages “at or near minimum wage” and were nonexempt employees, but were not paid 1.5-times their regular rate of pay for time worked in excess of “40 hours in a given workweek,” as required by FSLA.
Minimum wage in Arizona in 2022 was $12.80 an hour. It rose to $13.85 an hour on Jan. 1.
The lawsuit states that, at the end of each month, the employees were paid incentive pay or bonuses, as well as an additional sum for “Retro OT.”
“While plaintiffs were paid some overtime pay, (they) were not paid the correct amount of their overtime wages,” the lawsuit states. “Defendant failed to properly incorporate the incentives, bonuses, and additional compensation paid to plaintiffs in each pay period as part of the determination of their regular rate of pay.”
All of the plaintiffs are described as former mortgage bankers for the company “whose primary job duties included the origination of residential mortgages.” Each left the company at some point in 2022.
In April last year, Detroit-based Rocket Mortgage and Amrock, its title company, offered voluntary buyouts to 8% of its workforce. It followed that with another buyout offering in August. The lawsuit does not state the reason each of the plaintiffs left the company.
The lawsuit seeks “equitable relief, overtime wages, unpaid wages, liquidated damages, interest, attorneys’ fees, and costs under the FLSA.”
Aaron Emerson, a Rocket spokesman, minced no words regarding the lawsuit.
“This is nothing more than a desperate, last-minute attempt by a group of former employees who knowingly and willingly violated the terms of their employment with our company and are already party to pending litigation,” he said in an emailed statement. “We fully expect these baseless claims to be tossed out as we proceed toward holding these individuals to account for their actions.”
Emerson did not respond to a follow-up question regarding the “pending litigation” he cited in the company’s statement.
