Bellsouth Call Center Employees Challenge Pay Practices
Three employees of Bellsouth's call center in Escambia County, Florida have filed a putative collective action against the company under the Fair Labor Standards Act, alleging that they were denied overtime pay.
The complaint alleges that call center employees routinely start work before their official eight hour shift begins in order to boot up their computers, start computer applications, and perform other duties so that they are ready to field incoming calls at the start of their shift. The complaint also alleges that the company denies call center employees pay for work performed during rest and meal breaks, and that the company requires employees to continue work "off the clock" after their scheduled shift ends. The case is Bonner v. Bellsouth Telecommunications, Inc., Case No. 3:08-cv-00524-WS-EMT (N.D. Fla.).
Whether the plaintiffs' allegations have any merit remains to be seen. It's also questionable whether booting up a computer is compensable activity, as noted in this post from the Connecticut Employment Law Blog. Nevertheless, the Bonner case serves as a reminder to employers to keep accurate records of actual time worked by non-exempt employees. Scheduling employees for an eight hour shift is fine, but employers should not assume that the employees work only during their scheduled shift. Preliminary and postliminary activities may be deemed principal activities and thus compensable. Likewise, rest periods of 20 minutes or less are compensable, as are meal breaks when the employee is not completely relieved of duty.
