Bank of America Sued Over Unpaid Call Center Overtime

Kansas City, MOAlleged failure to provide overtime pay for required work appears to have landed Bank of America in hot water. Suggesting an affront to overtime rules and overtime labor laws, a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of workers who toiled at Bank of America call centers across the US.

Central to the collective action—which means that other Bank of America employees who have similar job duties might join the case—is the practice of requiring employees to perform certain tasks directly related to their jobs before they punch in and after they clock out.

In other words, the employer interprets the start of work as being the point when a call center employee takes his first call from a Bank of America client seeking assistance. It appears that a collection of functions an employee must perform prior to taking that first call—and after accepting the last call for the day—is not considered work by the employer.

Thus, the lawsuit.

Employee Overtime Pay a Basic Right

According to the October 30 Business Wire the lawsuit alleges that telephone-dedicated call center employees were required to perform essential preparatory and related work activities before and after their paid shifts. Such activities were integral to their duties. Examples of the alleged unlawful practices include finding a computer station, retrieving their headsets and other necessary equipment from lockers, logging in to a computer, logging on to the Bank of America network, opening relevant computer programs and software applications, reviewing memoranda and email, and completing other essential tasks—all required to be done prior to technically starting their work day, according to the point of view of the defendant.

Similar duties were performed after being required to clock out following their last call of the day.

According to the complaint, Bank of America call center employees who are eligible for overtime pay were required to submit their timesheets to management for approval, utilizing a system known as eWorkplace to track all overtime hours.

The allegation is that Bank of America allowed their managers to unilaterally modify or decrease overtime hours rightfully earned by overtime-eligible associates. The complaint further alleges that Bank of America managers were allowed to instruct workers eligible for overtime hours to modify or reduce their recorded overtime before a manager would even approve the overtime at all.

The failure to pay employees their earned overtime wages is in direct violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Laws on overtime provide that pay for overtime is an entrenched right.