On March 9, 2023, Klafter Lesser filed a case alleging that Farmers Insurance both willfully misclassified its insurance agents, failing to pay them overtime due under federal law, and also violated California state laws by terminating a large number of agents on the basis of age. As the complaint alleges, Farmers’ insurance agents are sold visions of running their own businesses and building wealth through entrepreneurship. But these visions are a mirage, as the agents are little more than cogs in the Farmers machine, with
Farmers setting harsh terms of employment, micromanaging the agents and their agencies, and forcing them to work 45 hours a week or more without providing overtime pay. Farmers also wrongfully discriminated against a large number of insurance agents on the basis of age by using its “Managing Underperforming Agents” program as a pretext to terminate its older agents. The case, brought by Klafter Lesser with co-counsel Shegerian & Associates, is Ruffulo v. Farmers Insurance Exch., et al, case number 2:23-cv-01796, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. A copy of the complaint can be found here.
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