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Century Woman Lead Plaintiff In Federal Labor Suit Against Clearwire
October 5, 2011
A Century woman is one of two lead plaintiffs in a suit against the Clearwire call center in East Milton, claiming the company did not pay them for work they performed.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Pensacola by the law firm of Nichols Kaster, PLLP, which has offices in Minneapolis and San Francisco.
Demetria Stallworth of Century and Natalie Baker of Pensacola were both customer service representatives at the company from August 2009 to August 2011.
Baker and Stallworth allege in their complaint that Clear Wireless required customer service representatives, and those with similar job titles, to perform unpaid work before or after their shift. That work included time spent booting-up computers, initializing software programs, and reviewing work related emails and internet messages. They claim that Clear Wireless expected them to be ready to answer calls when their scheduled shift started but did not pay them for the time they spent getting ready to take these calls.
“When companies require their call center employees to perform work before or after their scheduled phone shifts, the law requires them to compensate them for it. Through this case, we will try to get these employees paid for every minute they worked,” said Nichols Kaster partner Michele Fisher.
Since the suit was filed in federal court on behalf of Stallworth and Baker, about two dozen other plaintiffs have joined the action.
Clearwire has denied the allegations in a response filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
Comments
8 Responses to “Century Woman Lead Plaintiff In Federal Labor Suit Against Clearwire”
I also had to come in about 15 minutes early every day to boot up computer, read emails etc. there was many a night before leaving I had to fill out a form because of taking break later than scheduled or lunch, took about 2 minutes, that is alot of unpaid time. ( Michelle ) I have worked at jobs longer hun than that and I have also never in my life a job because of being asked too, I left Clear because I smelled a rat and I was right! All this stuff was planned, the teletech take over was part of the plan.
This was the worst place I could have ever worked and I will also join this suit.
The things we were asked to do was wrong! The way they conducted business was wrong.
Clear or Teletech which ever name you are going by these days, I HATE YOU and I am so glad that I smelled that rat and turned in my notice to you!
Michelle, I have a sneaky suspicion as to which call center that you are talking about. As a former supervisor at this call center, I can tell you without a doubt that if you do your job, show up for work on your scheduled shift, do not take longer than your allotted time on breaks, then you would not have a problem with that company. In my years as a supervisor in civilian life, I have found that in most cases the employees do not adhere to company rules and regulations. They seem to want something for nothing.
Before you say anything, I am a former supervisor only because of an illness and not because I was terminated. I left the company in good standing with them. I am in my 60’s and have never in my life been terminated from a job and I had been working since I was 15.
The plaintiffs could have saved a lot of money and time by going to the Wage and Hour board instead of hiring an attorney, they would have taken care of this matter QUICK. I was one of the ones who received back pay from a company in Atmore for doing the same thing. These companies do this routinely hoping they can buy lots of time before someone blows the whistle on them..and it works. ANY work you do for any company before you are actually paid for it is illegal.
There is a call center that is so much worse. I don’t know how they stay in business.
@Sam, The last person that even hinted at unionizing the workers there was “constructively terminated.”
The company found reasons to get rid of employees that rocked the boat so to speak.
Before I resigned I had 2 write-ups done on me that were completely bogus and I had to prove them to be bogus so they wouldn’t be on my record with them.
This company is a prime example of back office politics, unless you were going out drinking with management at Ollies, or at a house party you did not get an advancement.
Another case in point, you’re supposed to be in your current position 6 months for any promotion, they had a “temp” position in IT come up, many of us applied, I was in the top 5, and someone who had been there 2 months as a phone rep got the position. It went from a temp position to a full time position with about a 10-15k increase in salary. I didn’t get it all because the General Manager did not like me.
There’s other advancements that some employees got within the company that did not (by company policy) qualify for the position. I was the boat rocker when I would bring it up to management.
And even have pictures of said employees out drinking with managers before they even got their advancements in the company. That I saved just for something similar to this to come up.
say what you will. if they were union that would not have happened. i know people demonize unions for backing liberals and i agree; but the benefits they get for their members far outweigh the stupidity of the union officials. health coverage, overtime pay, vacation. it sure helps.
I was waiting for this to happen. I worked there from the time the company started up until roughly 2 years ago.
I was also denied an advancement in position with the company 10x in 3 years, after I passed ALL their tests for said position every single time, even scoring better than people who worked there with master degrees! Every time I’d test they would have an excuse, like “work on your typing skills.” I believe it was all because of my disability and being in a wheelchair and unable to travel if needed to their other center in Vegas, or their head office in Kirkland Washington, so I resigned for “health reasons.” I had no write-ups, no attendance issues, was almost always at work on time, and most the time 45min early to get my work station setup to take tech calls for the day.
I would love to see Clearwire taken to court for the way they treat employees! Being someone who had inside information on everything that went on in the building and knowing how upper-management treated everyone, its about time they get theirs.
I can remember checks being issued to then current and previous employees of call center employees in Atmore for this same reason.