Novartis sales reps fighting for overtime pay just got a powerful ally. The US Department of Labor filed an amicus brief with a federal appeals court contending that a lower court was wrong to toss their lawsuit, The Pink Sheet’s Brenda Sandburg reports.
In an Oct. 13 filing, the department argued the district court “committed legal error” in concluding that sales reps are outside sales persons and, therefore, are exempt from overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (here is the Labor Department brief).
“Because the reps do not sell any drugs or obtain any orders for drugs, and can at most obtain from the physicians a non-binding commitment to prescribe [Novartis'] drugs to their patients when appropriate, the reps do not meet the regulation’s plain and unmistakable requirement that their primary duty must be ‘making sales,’” the Labor Department stated.
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At least 16 drug makers have been sued by sales reps for overtime pay. The Novartis suit, which was filed in March 2006 and involves some 2,500 reps, was the first. The litigation, however, has taken a confusing path, because different district courts have reached opposite conclusions. (Ver...)
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