Employee and contract labor issues

In 2003, Countrywide was the subject of a class-action lawsuit alleging overtime violations. Countrywide was charged with working employees 10–15 hours per day, 6 to 7 days per week without compensating them for overtime wages. The lawsuit was settled in May 2005, with the payment of $30 million in compensation to 400 account executives.Additionally, Countrywide is one of many companies that conducts in-depth background searches of new employee applicants. The background search goes beyond typical employment, education, and criminal history searches, and enables a company to view the applicant's credit, and public record documents such as lawsuits and divorce records. Although it must be authorized by the applicant, Countrywide explicitly does not consider applicants who deny authoriz