According to a recently filed class action lawsuit, international staffing giant Kelly Services is allegedly withholding overtime pay from home-based customer care agents in violation of state and federal wage and hour laws.
The home-based customer care agents are classified as non-exempt employees and are required to perform a number of tasks before, during, and after their shifts but are not paid for all of these activities. This unpaid time includes:
- Starting and logging into various necessary computer programs and applications at the beginning of the workday;
- Logging out of and shutting down those programs and applications at day’s end.
These actions total up to 20 minutes or longer, yet agents are only compensated for 10 minutes of this time pursuant to company policy.
Similarly, at periodic times agents become disconnected from Kelly’s computer systems or experience problems with the programs and applications needed to perform their jobs. When than occurs, the employees are required to place a telephone call to Kelly’s technical support line when experiencing a technical issue, yet are not paid for all of the time spent resolving the problem. For example:
- Waiting on hold to speak to a member of Kelly’s technical support team which often takes 15 minutes or longer;
- Waiting for a return call from the technical support team which may last 3 to 4 hours or longer;
- Restarting and logging back into programs and applications which often requires an additional 10 to 15 minutes.
Despite the fact that resolving a technical issue may consume as much as 4.5 hours or more of a call center agent’s workday, company policy restricts compensation for such events to one hour.
Due to Kelly’s failure to pay for such “off the clock” work, which frequently constitutes overtime warranting time-and-a-half, Sommers Schwartz filed a class action lawsuit against the company on behalf of all current and former hourly home-based customer care agents who worked for Kelly Services at any time during the last three years. The suit seeks recovery for all unpaid wages and overtime hours as well as liquidated damages, attorneys’ fees, and costs.
If you are or were employed by Kelly Services as a customer care agent and believe you, too, were wrongfully denied wages and overtime, please contact the attorneys in Sommers Schwartz’s Employment Litigation Group today to learn how we can pursue your rights.
[contact-form-7 id=”2393″ title=”Employment Contact Form”]
Jason J. Thompson
Jason Thompson is a nationally board certified trial attorney and co-chairs Sommers Schwartz’s Complex Litigation Department. He has a formidable breadth of litigation experience, including class action and multidistrict litigation (MDL), and practices nationwide in both state and federal courts.
