California Court Approves $10.5 Million Settlement With Aon

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has given final approval to a $10.5 million class action settlement involving Aon Insurance Services Inc., according to the plaintiff’s’ attorney.

The plaintiffs alleged that California Account Specialists, whose work involves assisting account managers in providing insurance brokerage services to Aon’s clients, have been misclassified by the defendant as exempt administrative employees.

According to Louis Marlin, partner at Marlin & Saltzman, by being misclassified as salaried employees, the group of employees weren’t paid the additional amount when they worked overtime. Thus, they fought to recover unpaid overtime compensation.

The action against Aon Insurance Services Inc. (now known as Aon Private Risk Management of California Insurance Agency Inc.), Aon Risk Services Companies Inc. and Aon Corp. was litigated by Louis Marlin, Stanley Saltzman, Dale Anderson and Kristen M. Fritz of Marlin & Saltzman LLP.

The case was filed in September 2007. In May 2010, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl granted plaintiffs’ motion for class certification.

Judge Elihu M. Berle approved the settlement on behalf of 534 class members, who should receive proceeds within the next 60 days.

“The case has significant implications because these group of employees that worked at insurance brokerage companies were misclassified, and there are a lot of companies that have people just like this doing similar work that are also being misclassified,” Marlin said. “We believe this has a very important result in this industry.”

Topics California Aon