The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to consider drug-company appeals of a pair of rulings that said pharmaceutical-sales representatives are eligible for overtime pay.

The justices, without comment, left in place a ruling by a New York federal appeals court that revived the overtime claims of 2,500 sales reps who worked for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., a unit of Novartis AG (NVS, NOVN.VX).

The same court issued a second ruling in favor of sales reps for Schering Corp., a unit of Merck & Co. (MRK).

The court ruled the workers did not fall under the outside-salesman exception to overtime pay requirements because drug reps, though they promote medicines to doctors, don't actually sell anything.

The drug companies, in their appeals to the Supreme Court, said the industry for decades has classified sales reps as exempt from overtime pay requirements. They said the lower court ruling would impose significant costs on U.S. businesses that employ sales forces.

The companies said the Department of Labor, which supported the sales representatives in the case, took a position that upended longstanding overtime rules.

Lawyers for the sales reps disagreed, saying the department was accurately applying longstanding regulations.

Lower courts have issued differing rulings on whether drug reps should receive overtime pay. Earlier this month, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said former sales reps for GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) were not entitled to overtime. That court rejected the Department of Labor's arguments in favor of the sales reps as "plainly erroneous."

   -By Brent Kendall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9222; brent.kendall@dowjones.com
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