SCEA Settles Overtime Lawsuit

Sony Computer Entertainment America has settled an employee class-action lawsuit in California by agreeing to pay $8.5 million to current and past employees who claimed they were entitled to (but never paid) overtime by Sony.

Employment legislation in many jurisdictions requires employers to pay employees overtime after a certain number of hours unless the employees fall into exempted groups. These groups are typically highly-skilled individuals in a particular industry such as software development. The Sony employees claimed they California exemption did not apply to them.

Employee overtime lawsuits are becoming a regular occurrence in the video game industry. Electronic Arts, Activision and Gamestop have all been hit with them. In 2005, EA settled one lawsuit by agreeing to pay employees $15.6 million.

The Sony case citation is Andrew Wilson v. Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc

Coverage at GameDaily