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Plaintiffs' Counsel Announces San Jose-Based Cadence Design Systems Is Target of Overtime Pay Class Action Lawsuit

Posted on: Wednesday, 30 May 2007, 15:00 CDT

Employees of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. today filed a nationwide class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco charging the nationwide San Jose-based computer services company with failure to pay overtime wages in violation of federal and state labor laws.

The suit, Higazi v. Cadence, was filed by attorneys from Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP and Altshuler Berzon LLP on behalf of current and former Cadence Systems Engineers. The proposed class includes hundreds of systems administrators, network technicians, helpdesk support workers, and other technical staff who are based in Cadence's offices in San Jose, San Diego, Irvine, Berkeley, and Napa, as well as Massachusetts, Texas, and Utah.

"Hundreds of Cadence technical support workers put in long hours to support the company's computer systems and help Cadence bring in $1.5 billion in revenues," stated Lieff Cabraser partner Kelly M. Dermody. "These employees deserve to be paid for their efforts to make Cadence successful."

The complaint charges that Cadence unlawfully characterizes its employees who install, maintain, and support computer software and hardware as exempt from certain federal and California labor law compensation requirements in order to deprive them of overtime pay. The proposed class consists of current and former Cadence Systems Engineers, who were wrongly classified by the company as exempt from the overtime provisions of wage and hour laws.

"A corporation cannot avoid paying overtime wages simply by providing a fancy sounding title to workers who are entitled to overtime pay under the law," said James M. Finberg, a partner with Altshuler Berzon.

Plaintiff Ahmed Higazi, a 45-year-old Pleasanton resident, was a technical support worker for Cadence in its San Jose headquarters for 5 years. He was responsible for installing, maintaining, and supporting computer software and hardware for the company. "I was often required to work in excess of 40 hours a week -- but I did not receive overtime pay.

"What they did to me and other tech support workers was simply unfair. I worked hard for the company, and was not compensated for all the hours I put in for Cadence," said Higazi, who left Cadence in 2004 and currently works at another technology service company.

Dermody explained, "Workers are entitled to overtime pay unless they fall under a specific legal exemption, such as computer programmers who develop software. The plaintiff and class members in this lawsuit are responsible for maintaining computer networks, not developing new software. They do not qualify for the software development exemption, or any other exemption, under wage and hour laws."

The lawsuit is asking the federal court to issue an injunction requiring Cadence to provide overtime pay to eligible employees as well as compensation and damages to all current and former employees who were denied overtime both in California and elsewhere.

Further Information

Members of the media can obtain a copy of the complaint by contacting Kelly M. Dermody or Jahan C. Sagafi of Lieff Cabraser by e-mail to kdermody@lchb.com or jsagafi@lchb.com.

Current and former Cadence Systems Engineers and other technical staff who wish to learn more about the lawsuit or to join the lawsuit should visit www.lieffcabraser.com/cadence-overtime.htm or call 1-800-541-7358 to contact the plaintiff's attorneys.

Source: Business Wire

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