Judge allows JPMorgan overtime lawsuit to proceed

By Martha Graybow

NEW YORK, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Two former JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) brokers can sue the financial firm over accusations that they were improperly denied overtime pay, a federal judge has ruled.

In a court order, the bank was told it must defend an employment lawsuit brought by the former financial advisers, who say that their compensation was awarded on a commission basis and that they were wrongly denied pay for time worked beyond a 40-hour work week.

The lawsuit also contends that when customers challenged transactions executed by the brokers, the bank improperly deducted the losses from the workers' commissions.

A JPMorgan spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the ruling on Tuesday.

The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for unpaid overtime wages and for the deductions from the commissions they say they deserve. Their lawsuit seeks class-action status on behalf of other employees at the New York-based bank.

U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan, in a written decision dated Monday, denied a petition by JPMorgan to dismiss the lawsuit. He said the plaintiffs could bring claims under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and New York labor law.

The judge, however, threw out one of the plaintiffs' claims for damages from alleged breach of their employment contract.

The lawsuit was filed in December 2006 by Alan Krichman, who worked at the bank as a financial adviser from July 2004 to September 2005, and James Howell, who worked in a similar role from August 2002 to April 2003. (Reporting by Martha Graybow, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)