American Income Life (AIL) Insurance Agent Employee Class Action Lawsuit

Gibbs Law Group filed a class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California alleging that AIL violated certain provisions of the California Labor Code by failing to properly compensate its insurance agents for all hours spent working or in trainings, among other things. Our clients alleged that AIL required employees to attend mandatory meetings and trainings that lasted a week or more, without paying them commission or full wages. The lawsuit also alleged that American Income life failed to provide agents with full minimum wage, overtime pay, proper meal and rest breaks, and reimbursement for work-related expenses. In addition, AIL agents were allegedly subject to a practice called “chargebacks” which means that if an agent sold an insurance policy that was later canceled by a customer, AIL would illegally collect back the commissions and wages that those agents earned.

You are included in the settlement if you trained to become and/or worked as a sales agent in California for American Income Life Insurance Company (“AIL”) at any time between September 12, 2014 and August 16, 2019. For change of address forms and other information, please visit the settlement website: http://ailclassaction.com/.

On August 1, 2019, Plaintiffs submitted a proposed settlement for court approval. However, the court did not grant final approval of that settlement because penalties for certain claims are calculated on a per-person basis, and penalties for other claims are calculated on a per-workweek basis. In response, Gibbs Law Group renegotiated the settlement with AIL to account for the court’s concerns. The court was satisfied with the revised settlement, and on January 7, 2021, Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson granted final approval to the settlement.

Under California employment law and the laws of many other states, all mandatory hours must be paid if the person should have been classified as an employee, but was misclassified as an independent contractor under California law.

Our California employment attorneys – with over 50 years of collective experience litigating under California employment law – know how to fight for employees’ rights and get them the money they deserve. We’ve recovered tens of millions of dollars for California employees and represent individuals as well as class actions in virtually every area of California employment and labor laws: California overtime law, off the clock violations in CA, breach of contract disputes, California independent contractor law, sexual harassment, employee misclassification, discrimination, as well as mass layoffs in violation of the California WARN Act. Our California employment lawyers are repeatedly recognized for their expertise litigating in California. Founding partner Eric Gibbs has been selected as one of the Top Plaintiff Lawyers in California. And seventeen of the firm’s attorneys were selected as Northern California Super Lawyers and Rising Stars, a distinction received by less than 5% of attorneys in Northern California.