Liberty Mutual’s claims adjusters investigated and estimated claims, made coverage determinations, negotiated settlements, and identified potential fraud. The claims adjusters sued the insurer for back overtime pay, claiming they were misclassified as exempt administrative employees.
A California appeals court has now ruled in the employees’ favor, finding that they didn’t qualify for the administrative overtime exemption because their job duties were more “production” than “administrative.” 1 In particular, the adjusters’ regular work was clearly made up of day-to-day production duties. And even if certain adjusters might have done some work at the policy or general operations level, there was no evidence that even one adjuster primarily engaged in such work.
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1 Harris v. Superior Court (Liberty Mutual), Calif. Court of Appeals (Dist. 2) No. B195121, 2007