Sterling Savings Bank Faces Labor Litigation

Two mortgage loan officers are suing ""Sterling Savings Bank"":https://www.bankwithsterling.com/, based in Washington and with operations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and California, for allegedly violating federal and state labor laws.

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According to the complaint filed in an Oregon federal court, Sterling Savings Bank and Golf Savings Bank denied mortgage loan officers and other mortgage origination employees overtime pay they are due under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Sterling Savings and Golf Savings merged in 2010.

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The complaint also alleges the banks deducted ""costs of doing business"" from employees pay. For example, credit report fees and appraisal fees were deducted from loan officers' pay checks.

Micah DuBeau and David DuBeau, both from Medford, Oregon, are represented by Kansas-based Rowdy Meeks Legal Group and Oregon-based Johnson Johnson Larson & Schaller. The legal firms plan to try to make the case a class and collective action case.

""FLSA violations have been pervasive throughout the mortgage industry,"" stated Rowdy B. Meeks, of Rowdy Meeks Legal Group LLC. ""We allege Sterling Savings Bank willfully violated the FLSA and hope this case and others will convince the mortgage banking industry to comply with labor laws.""

The law firms will attempt to recover overtime wages, illegal wage deductions, liquidated damages, and litigation fees for any eligible loan officers who worked for Sterling Savings or Golf Savings over the past six years.

Sterling Savings told _MReport_ Monday afternoon, ""At this point, we do not have a comment"" on the matter.