Shannon Dockery filed a class-action and collective-action complaint on Tuesday against Frontier Communications Corporation, Citizens Telecom Services Company LLC, and up to 100 additional unnamed individuals for their alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and other labor-related laws and orders. The complaint purported that the defendants failed to pay overtime wages and provide meal or rest breaks to its employees, among other things.
According to the Eastern District of California complaint, the defendants are telecommunications service providers. The complaint noted that the plaintiff was “a customer service analyst or customer service representative working for Defendants in California.” The plaintiff claimed that during the Class Period, defined as the three years prior to the filing of the complaint, through the date of judgment she and other customer service analysts or customer service representatives would “handle phone calls and internet chats related to internal and external customer service and to troubleshoot internal and external problems according to company policy.”
The plaintiff alleged that she and other similarly situated customer service analysts or customer service representatives were not fully compensated by the defendants in violation of the FLSA, various labor codes, and various IWC Wage Order numbers. Specifically, the defendants purportedly failed to pay the plaintiff and the putative and collective classes at least minimum wage or designated rates for all hours worked, overtime wages, and premium wages.
Moreover, the plaintiff asserted that the defendants failed to “maintain documentation of the actual hours worked each day by Plaintiffs, all wages earned and meal breaks,” “indemnify Plaintiffs for employment-related expenses,” “pay all wages due and owing upon regular payroll and termination of employment, including, but not limited to, repayment of all unlawful deduction from wages, payment of minimum wage,” “provide Plaintiffs with meal breaks and rest breaks and failed to pay for rest breaks, and premium wages for on-duty, missed, short, and/or late meal or rest breaks,” and “provided Plaintiffs with wage statements that, among other things, do not show all wages earned, all hours worked, all applicable pay rates.”
For example, Dockery averred that she worked in excess of 40 hours per week but did not receive overtime pay and was not always provided meal or rest breaks.
Moreover, the plaintiff proffered that the defendants misclassified the plaintiff, putative classes, and collective classes as exempt employees when they should be classified as non-exempt employees. The plaintiff explained that the plaintiffs’ “primary duty was to produce that service and even sell products that Frontier exists to produce. Plaintiffs did not regularly exercise discretion and independent judgment. They merely complied with Defendants’ policies in their work.” However, despite this, the defendants purportedly “classified, treated and paid Plaintiffs as exempt employees,” thus, the plaintiffs were allegedly not compensated for the hours they worked in excess of 8 per day or 40 per week nor were they provided meal or rest breaks.
The plaintiff seeks class and sub-class certification, and for the plaintiff and her counsel to represent the class; an award for damages, costs and fees; restitution; pre- and post-judgment interest; and other relief.
The plaintiff is represented by Christina Humphrey Law P.C. and Tower Legal Group P.C.
