HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise will together pay $US25 million to settle a lengthy class-action lawsuit involving about 2,000 mostly California-based salespeople who were denied money they were owed by defective sales commission software.
The salespeople that sued the company are expected to receive thousands of dollars in settlement fees after a nine-year court battle that began years before Hewlett Packard split into two companies in 2015, Business Insider reports.
It’s alleged Hewlett-Packard’s sales commission software MyComp would incorrectly calculate pay, issue reduced commissions checks and, in some cases, inform salespeople that they owed the company money for overpayments. HPE told one salesperson he owed the company over $US130,000.
In 2016, the company’s then-CEO Meg Whitman met with her sales leadership team, who lambasted her about the situation, according to the report. That meeting took place six months after Whitman had split the company into two.
Both HP Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise agreed to a $25 million settlement in 2017 and also agreed to upgrade their sales commission systems. Last week, a US court approved the settlement.
A spokesperson for HPE said: “HPE is pleased that the mediated resolution in this dispute that was reached by the parties in 2017 has been approved by the Court.”
A spokesperson for one of the lawyers in the case said some people would be receiving several thousand dollars and others would be getting “considerably” more.
HP and HPE will also pay about $US1.2 million of the settlement in penalties to the State of California Labour & Workforce Development Agency.
