Former Bank of America employees who worked in California, New York or Illinois and left the bank with vacation time they were never paid for are covered by a class action settlement that pays without anyone filing a claim. The settlement’s official website says the case is Nguyen v. Bank of America, No. 5:23-cv-04999-PCP, and that class members do not have to do anything to take part. The tracking site ClaimDepot lists the deal as preliminarily approved, and a final approval hearing is set for Dec. 17, 2026.
Who is covered
The class is made up of people formerly employed by Bank of America who worked in California, New York and Illinois, had a positive vacation balance when they left and received no payout for the accrued, unused vacation. Named plaintiffs in the case are included too. The website does not name the court in its summary, though Law360, in a July 20 report that Bank of America agreed to pay $4.3 million, lists the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
ClaimDepot, which tracks settlements, lists the covered periods by state: California from Sept. 28, 2019, Illinois from Sept. 28, 2013 and New York from Sept. 28, 2017, each through Sept. 1, 2026. The settlement site says the full timeframes are in its FAQ and in the notice.
That makes the real question for a former employee a matter of records, not paperwork: did the final paycheck include the vacation hours that had built up, and was the last job in one of the three states? Anyone who left a Bank of America job in those states with hours unpaid is likely in the class, and the money arrives only after a court hearing, which is the part worth following.
No claim form means nothing to file, so the work is tracking: Nov. 23 is the date to opt out, object or send an adjustment form, and the court hears final approval Dec. 17. The Settlement & Refund Recovery System has the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice and a claim log and payment tracker for a payment that arrives on its own.
Track the Bank of America vacation payment with the Recovery System’s payment tracker →
Three actions due Nov. 23
None of the three is required, and the site lists the same deadline for all: Nov. 23, 2026. A class member can opt out of the settlement, can object to it, or can submit an adjustment form. The adjustment form is the one tied to money. The site says it gives an estimate of the person’s individual settlement payment along with the data behind that calculation, which lets a former employee compare the bank’s records with their own.
Someone content with the settlement as written does nothing. The site describes this as the “Do Nothing” choice and says a class member does not have to act to be eligible for a payment. Anyone who wants a different outcome, by staying out or by objecting, has to act by Nov. 23.
What the payment is
The official summary does not state the size of the fund, the formula or a minimum. ClaimDepot lists a $4,280,000 fund, a minimum payment of $200 for each eligible class member, and the remainder divided by each person’s calculated losses. Law360’s headline figure of $4.3 million matches that fund. Those details come from the tracking site and the news report, not from the settlement website’s summary page, so the notice is the document that governs the final numbers.
On timing, ClaimDepot says payments go out within 20 days after the court resolves any appeals and grants final approval. If the Dec. 17 hearing goes ahead as scheduled and no appeal follows, that would put payment around the start of 2027, though the settlement site does not give a payment date.
What comes before the money
The Dec. 17 date is a fairness hearing, where the judge decides whether to give the settlement final approval. A preliminary approval means the court has agreed to send notice to the class. It does not guarantee the deal will be finalized, and the site calls it a proposed settlement until then.
Following the Dec. 17 hearing and the payment
The free route is the settlement website and its administrator. The contact page lists the Unused Vacation Settlement Administrator at 866-983-3173, by email at [email protected], or by mail at P.O. Box 2004, Chanhassen, MN 55317-2004. The site also links the full notice, Nguyen_Notice.pdf, which governs over any summary.
Before Nov. 23, a former employee should pull together the dates of employment, the states worked in, the last paystub and any record of the vacation balance at the time of leaving. Those details settle whether the class fits and whether the adjustment form’s estimate looks right.
After that, the dates to watch are the Dec. 17 hearing and whether any appeal follows. A note of the address on file with the administrator, and a look at the settlement website after the hearing, covers the rest of the waiting.
Nov. 23 and Dec. 17 are two different dates
One is the last day to opt out, object or send an adjustment form, and the other is the hearing that starts the clock on payment. No claim is needed here, so what is left is reading the notice dates and watching for the money. The Settlement & Refund Recovery System has the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice and a claim log and payment tracker, in a 50-page system.
Set up a payment tracker for the Dec. 17 hearing and the vacation payout with the Recovery System →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
