Top Court Rules For Glaxosmithkline Plc On Overtime Pay-Reuters

Reuters reported that the supreme court ruled on Jun 18, 2012 that pharmaceutical companies do not have to pay overtime to their representatives who visit doctors' offices to promote their products, a dispute that had threatened the industry with billions of dollars in potential liability. By a 5 to 4 vote, the high court handed a defeat to two former sales representatives for a unit of GlaxoSmithKline Plc. They had appealed a ruling by a U.S. appeals court in California that they were outside sales personnel exempt from federal overtime pay requirements. That decision conflicted with an earlier ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that pharmaceutical sales representatives qualified for overtime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America trade group has told the Supreme Court that classifying sales representatives as eligible for overtime could expose the industry to billions of dollars in potential costs.