Jack Jimenez v. Allstate Insurance Company

Allstate appeals from the district court’s grant of class certification to Jack Jimenez and about 800 other Allstate employees in California who allege that Allstate has a practice or unofficial policy of requiring its claims adjusters to work unpaid off-the-clock overtime in violation of California law. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (e), and we affirm.

I

Allstate has 13 local offices in California, which are individually managed -but under centralized leadership. At those 13 offices, Allstate employs five categories of claims adjusters: Auto, Liability Determination, Casualty, Property, and a Special Investigation Unit. Some adjusters spend most of their work day in a particular office (“inside” adjusters), while others, although they are officially assigned to a particular office, spend most of their time in the field (“outside” adjusters). The amount and type of work, as well as the level and quality of claims adjusters’ interaction with managers, varies between offices, between categories of adjusters, and between inside and outside adjusters.

In 2005, Allstate shifted all of its California-based claims adjusters to hourly status from exempt, or…