Published in News

Employees sue Dell in Class Action Suit

by on18 July 2008

Image

Claim pay violations at call centers

Unhappy call center employees at Dell Inc. filed an action against Dell Inc. last February in U.S. District Court over violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the suit has now been granted class-action lawsuit status so that other workers at its call center can join the action. Dell employs about 5,000 call center employees. The suit hasn’t spelled out specific damages, but claims that call center employees are owed at least $5 million by Dell.

The action claims that Dell maintains inaccurate payroll records and denies wages and overtime pay to sales representatives working at the call centers, and that Dell does not allow these workers to correct their records even when they have found errors and pointed them out. The claim also alleges that Dell’s record keeping system mandatorily deducts one hour for lunch, even if the workers did not take an entire hour; and that employees were not paid for attending mandatory company meetings prior to the beginning of their work shifts or paid for the time required to prepare to take customer calls.

The complaints allege that "Dell has been on notice of the … record keeping errors for years but has failed to correct the errors or obtain a new method of time keeping for [sales reps]….Dell enjoys ill-gained profits at the expense of its call center employees."  Dell has denied the claims and says that its actions are in compliance with the law.

Last modified on 18 July 2008
Rate this item
(0 votes)