Eric Dirks, a founding attorney with Kansas City, Mo.-based Williams Dirks Dameron has filed numerous class-action suits against Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner. He hopes the recurrence will cause tech companies to reevaluate how they classify their employees, according to the Kansas City Business Journal.
Mr. Dirks' most recent case was filed by Laura Scott in 2015. The case alleged Cerner considered delivery consultants and system analysts exempt from receiving overtime wages. Jackson County Circuit Judge W. Brent Powell certified the suit as class-action last week.
Mr. Dirks said Williams Dirks Dameron has filed six cases against Cerner, many of which allege the company misclassified employees. "Between the cases, they are different jobs and different job titles, but they are relatively similar," Mr. Dirks said, according to the report. "Our hope always in filing these cases is that it causes the company to go back and reevaluate its classification decisions."
Despite this hope, Mr. Dirks doesn't think this trend will stop. He anticipates these types of lawsuits will continue to arise as tech companies become available to entry-level employees. "You're seeing a lot more of the tech industry where this is occurring," he said, according to the report. "[The job description] sounds technical, but when it gets down to the details, it's not. You don't have to have to have a computer or medical background."