Labor & Employment Law

The Courts May Hang Up on AT&T In Novel Class Action

By Mark E. Tabakman, Esq.

Workers have filed a serious class action against the cell phone division of AT&T.  The workers, who received overtime pay at first, have claimed that the Company's supervisors changed the data base so employees could not enter more than 40 hours of working time in a week.  Thus, these employees were doing productive work for the Employer, but were working "off the clock."  Naturally, part of the alleged scheme, according to plaintiffs, was that the Company was not keeping accurate records of time worked.

These are dangerous case for an employer, because intentionally telling workers to work off the clock or making it impossible for them to enter additional working time, evidences a willfulness that could easily garner an extra (third year) tacked onto the two-year statute of limitations. It also would mean that any damages secured would, in all likelihood, be doubled (i.e. liquidated damages).

The plaintiffs estimate that 100 people would be involved.  Given that these employees probably earned considerably more than minimum wage, the resulting damages would be geometric

In the industrial world, there is often a great deal of pressure placed on managers (i.e. first level, middle managers) to stay within labor budgets and keep overtime and other personnel costs down.  Maybe this is what gives rise to doing something like this, but there really is no reason to engage in this kind of behavior, for any employer.  There is no defense to the action.  If the  evidence shows that intentional steps were taken to keep employees from accurately recording their actual working time, it becomes almost impossible to maneuver and find a viable defense.

Long story short-don't do it!

Full post as published by Wage & Hour - Development & Highlights on June 02, 2008 (boomark / email).