Call Center Employees Denied Overtime

Customer service representatives and call center employees who were denied overtime pay may be eligible to recover up to three years of back overtime wages.

Call center employees and customer service representations are generally entitled to receive time-and-a-half compensation when working more than 40 hours in a single workweek. However, some call center and customer service representatives are commonly denied overtime pay due to illegal employment practices, such as misclassifying call center workers as exempt employees or forcing customer service representatives to work off the clock. When a call center worker or customer service representative is denied overtime pay in violation of state or federal laws, they may have legal recourse.

Working more than 40 hours a week as a call center employee or customer service representative? Fill out our free case review form today and our overtime attorneys will determine, at no cost to you, whether you can recover up to three years of back overtime wages.

Unpaid Overtime Lawsuits: Call Center Workers and Customer Service Reps

Sprint/United Management Co. has agreed to pay nearly $9 million to settle three unpaid overtime lawsuits which accused the telecommunications company of failing to pay overtime wages to call center workers in California, New York and several other states. One of the overtime lawsuits alleged that Sprint failed to compensate customer service representatives for work performed before their shifts, after their shifts or during meal breaks. Some of the duties allegedly performed off the clock included:

• Booting up computers
• Summarizing notes from previous calls
• Reviewing information about the company’s services and promotions

If you are required to perform job-related tasks, such as those previously mentioned, and are not compensated for this time, fill out our free legal consultation form on the right. It is possible that you have fallen victim to a common overtime scam known as working off the clock and therefore may be entitled to recover back pay.

APAC Customer Services Inc. also recently settled an unpaid overtime case which alleged that the company denied customer service representatives overtime pay in violation of federal and state wage and hour laws. The call center employees, who were expected to handle inbound and outbound calls to the company’s customers, used a company timekeeping system every morning to log hours worked during their shifts. The customer service representatives also utilized another electronic system to bill the company’s clients for time spent managing client-related phone calls. According to the ruling, this system logs the amount of time the call center employees spent on the phone system fielding calls, but did not establish their hours worked. Instead, to keep accurate time reporting data for its clients, the company monitored the difference between the time its workers spent logged into the timekeeping system and the management system.

A plaintiff in the overtime case claimed that several supervisors pressured her and a number of other employees to work off the clock. Turning on computers, logging into computer systems, performing clerical duties before logging into the system and reviewing notices posted on APAC’s intranet program were among the duties allegedly worked off the clock. According to the overtime lawsuit, the illegal practice of working off the clock was used to maximize the amount of time billable to the company’s clients.

Overtime Attorneys for Customer Service Representatives

If you are employed as a call center employee, customer service representative, telemarketer or similar position and were denied overtime pay, contact our overtime lawyers today. We have a firm understanding of applicable wage and hour laws and can determine whether your employer utilized an illegal employment practice, such as forcing call center employees to work off the clock, to avoid paying overtime. Our overtime lawyers are providing a free initial legal consultation to all employees, so do not hesitate to contact us today.