CALL CENTERS

California Employment Attorneys for Call Center Employees

A call center is a central customer service operation where agents (often called customer care specialists or customer service representatives) handle telephone calls for their company or on behalf of a client. Clients may include mail-order catalog houses, telemarketing companies, computer product help desks, banks, financial services and insurance groups, transportation and freight handling firms, hotels, and information technology (IT) companies. Call centers are subject to California state and federal labor laws.

Under federal and state employment laws, companies are required to keep records of the wages and hours that call center employees work. The employment law attorneys at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik often find that call center customer service employees do not receive the accurate itemized wage statements clearly revealing all of the information that is required by California labor laws and regulations.

One major problem with respect to the wage and hour rights of call center workers in California is that employers fail to pay them for all hours worked. Hours worked includes all time an employee must be on duty, or on the employer’s premises or at any other prescribed place of work, from the beginning of the first principal activity of the workday to the end of the last principal activity of the workday. This includes the time call center workers spend booting up and shutting down their computers pre-shift and post-shift. An example of common violations is when employees working in call centers spend time starting computers before shifts to download work instructions, computer applications, and work-related e-mails.

Unpaid Overtime? Call 800-568-8020 for Free Advice

Another major problem in the call center industry is that many companies pay customer service workers a salary without additional overtime pay for working more than eight hours in a workday or forty hours in a workweek. A salary, by itself, does not exempt employees from the minimum wage or from overtime. Whether employees are exempt from minimum wage and/or overtime depends on their job duties and responsibilities as well as the salary paid. Often times, in call centers, salaried employees do not meet all the requirements specified by the regulations to be considered as exempt.

If you are a call center customer service employee who is not being paid for all of the hours you worked or are working, contact one of our experienced overtime litigation attorneys. Our lawyers focus on representing customer service workers who serve as a direct point of contact for customers and are responsible for ensuring that the company’s customers receive an adequate level of service or help with their questions and concerns.