Boehringer Reps Get Legal Victory on Back Pay; Amgen, Serono Reps Could Be Affected

(MoneyWatch)  Sales reps at Boehringer-Ingelheim have won a legal victory that may lead to them being awarded back-pay for all the unpaid overtime they have worked. The ruling, by a federal court in Connecticut, could also affect two related cases involving sales reps at Amgen and Serono.

The suit was filed in 2006 by Luann Ruggeri, who was a Florida sales rep for Boehringer-Ingelheim until 2005. She alleged:

...managers, with the consent of corporate management, systematically violated the law ...: a. Failing to pay employees overtime compensation for hours worked in excess of forty hours per week; and b. Failing to maintain accurate records of employees' time. ...corporate management deliberately trained, surpvised, instructed and authorized managerial employees to engage in the above unlawful practices... to enhance corporate profits and reduce their labor costs.

The company inaccurately classified sales reps as exempt from overtime pay. That was wrong, the court ruled. Now Ruggeri's lawyers will be pressing for time-and-a-half for all the overtime worked by Ruggeri.

The ruling will be closely watched by lawyers on both sides of two similar cases against Serono and Amgen.

If further rulings go in Ruggeri's favor, all sales reps at BI during the period of the suit could be eligible for overtime back pay at time and a half.

UPDATE: Download the ruling here. (The court's website is currently nonfunctional. BNET will bring you a copy of the ruling as soon as it becomes available.) The suit contains some interesting information about sales rep life at Boehringer, and the judge clearly regards reps as people who do little more than parrot corporate scripts:

In preparation for meeting with targets, PSRs [pharma sales reps] are given a book which lists the drugs to be promoted to the physician and set forth "what the message [is] going to be for that drug, that [PSRs] were to consistently use those words verbatim to the physician." ... [Reps] may not alter this core message, which often consists of a short slogan or phrase.

The ruling, made several weeks ago but largely ignored in the media, is the subject of an ongoing debate among reps as to whether they should join the suit or not. Ruggeri is unpopular with at least one rep at BI. Here's a rant on Cafe Pharma:

Look, let's be honest. Just how many weeks do you truly put in 40 hours? Have you not realized that you are only going to walk away w/a few thousand dollars at best while the lawyers haul off the majority of the award/settlement?

Do us all a favor that still work at BI -- resign and drop this frivolous suit. Life is not always about me, me, me. If you don't like what you do and feel you are overpaid, please try to find another job out there with the same benefits, compensation and autonomy.

This person will, presumably, not cash the overtime check in the event that Ruggeri is ultimately victorious. In the meantime, the court's docket shows that dozens of reps have signed "consent to sue" forms. Looks like they're lining up for their payout.

Hat tip to InternetDrugNews.com, which saw the story first.