Call Centers are experts at streamlining productivity. Most large businesses like car companies, insurance companies and big department stores use call centers for phone services.
Call center workers use the phones to: handle sales, answer product questions or function as advertising for that company. This increases profits for the business, but not everyone gets a cut. Call center workers can have cramped conditions, be consistently pushed to faster speeds, and have to deal with angry or abusive calls from dissatisfied customers. And in some cases, the employers are even committing wage theft, and refusing to pay full wages like overtime.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was put in place to ensure that most people working in low paying jobs like call centers were given basic rights. Those three entitlements are: the right to being paid at least $7.25 an hour, the right to overtime pay and the right to be paid for all hours they have worked. Many call centers have denied their workers these rights as far back as the 1960’s.
Some employees have reported that they are unable to get FLSA standard time and a half pay for overtime hours. Others have reported that they are not paid for start up and shutdown procedures, like booting up a computer or finishing paperwork after call times. If you have procedures to perform at your desk that preps your software or allows you to do your job, then you have a right to be paid for that time. Some employees have reported almost a half an hour each workday is dedicated to these tasks, and they are not paid for them.
Most large companies that use call centers are under the FLSA. For over 60 years, attorneys have been fighting for your rights as a call center employee. They have won many civil lawsuits against large companies, like Farmers Insurance and AT&T. Large companies have fallen victim to cutting corners, in order to increase productivity. But in the end, it’s their own workforce who get stung by their actions. Attorneys are on the move, ensuring that you are getting the money you not only worked hard for, but deserve.
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About the author
Tim Becker Partner at Minneapolis’ Johnson // Becker PLLC, and lead sponsor of WageAdvocates.com. He is committed to providing clients effective, aggressive legal representation, and has prosecuted numerous individual FLSA violation claims.
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