Electronic Arts California for the time being is able to put the whole unpaid overtime fiasco behind them in court, but to the tune of $15.6 million.  That's how much the company has agreed to pay in order to settle the class action lawsuit that was levelled against them last July.  This lawsuit contends that EA snubbed many of its employees of their overtime pay by improperly classifying them as exempt from such compensation, and subsequently made headlines thanks to the "EA Spouse" blog which detailed the reportedly dreary working conditions at EA California.

"The terms of the settlement will see Electronic Arts pay out $15.6 million, to be distributed to all class members and plaintiffs' attorneys. A portion of that $15.6 million will go directly to the named plaintiffs (Kirshenbaum, Mark West, Eric Kearns, and Gianni Aliotti) as well as into a fund to cover all administrative costs. The case will be dismissed as a result.

EA says any portion of the settlement fund that is not claimed by the class will go to the Jackie Robinson Foundation, nonprofit organization that awards college scholarships to minority students."

However, according to GameSpot the hard feelings against EA still linger.  For example, former employees claim that EA decided to move a great number of jobs to other branch locations outside of California after being forced to classify which jobs were eligible for overtime pay.  This of course leads to fears that the publishing giant may once again be in the business of cutting corners for the bottom line.