A collective action has been filed against the phone company alleging thousands of call center employees have not been paid for off-the-clock work. The suit was filed in federal court in Kansas City on behalf of nearly 10,000 call center workers in North Carolina, New Mexico, Virginia, New York, California, Texas, Florida, and Oklahoma. The lawsuit alleges that the company's call center employees are not allowed to accurately or independently record the time they work.
Instead, Sprint Nextel provides them with time sheets reflecting their scheduled 40-hour weekly work shifts, even if they work longer hours. The action against Sprint Nextel alleges that the company's call center employees are not paid for the time they spend performing tasks before they take calls from customers. Those include booting up their computers, logging onto the company's network, opening computer programs and reviewing company memoranda and e-mails.
