Sommers Schwartz attorneys Jason Thompson and Jesse Young, along with counsel from California law firms Finkelstein & Krinsk LLP and James Hawkins, APLC, brought a collective action on behalf of call center agents employed by Accredited Debt Relief. According to the complaint, the defendant’s managers falsified the plaintiffs time records by reducing hours worked to no more than 40 hours per week and accessing the payroll system to falsely reflect that the plaintiffs were clocking out for meal periods. Also, the plaintiffs were regularly required to perform “off the clock” work including starting up and logging into computer networks, software programs, and applications before their shifts, and shutting down and logging out of those systems after their shifts ended. The plaintiffs should have been paid on an hourly basis, including overtime pay, but were instead paid on a contingent, commission-only basis than routinely denied them out of compensation to which they were legally entitled under state and federal wage and hour laws. The matter is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.