Posted on 27-Apr-07 by The Timekeeper

A suit was filed Tuesday April 24, 2007 in federal court in Kansas City, KS, alleging that Sprint Nextel Corp. call center employees were not paid for all their hours worked.

According to the suit, rather than recording their actual time worked, employees are simply handed time sheets showing their scheduled 40-hour weekly shifts — even if they worked longer hours.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Alvarez v. IBP that employees are entitled to be paid for time spent on activities that are “integral and indispensable” to their principle activity. In the case of Alvarez, the workers were slaughterhouse employees who the court ruled must be paid for the time spent putting on and removing required protective gear and walking from the gear stations to their work locations.

The Sprint case alleges employees are not paid for time they spend performing essential tasks, such as booting up their computers, logging in to the network and reviewing company memos and e-mails, prior to beginning to take calls from customers.

The suit was filed as a collective action, with Brandi R. Bruner, a former Sprint call center employee, as the plaintiff. The suit seeks three years’ back pay, which the plaintiff’s lawyer, George Hanson, said could run into millions of dollars. He estimated the time unpaid could amount to about 45 minutes per day per worker.

Sprint spokesperson Matt Sullivan stated Sprint Nextel is confident “we’re in compliance with all federal employment laws.” He would not comment further on the suit, saying the company had not yet been served.

In 2005, Cingular Wireless settled a similar suit for $5.1 million and T-Mobile USA settled another for $4.8 million. Allegations in both those suits were similar to those claimed in the Sprint Nextel suit.

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