WASHINGTON-The Department of Labor said it reached a settlement with Cingular Wireless L.L.C. whereby the No. 1 mobile-phone carrier will pay more than 25,000 customer service representatives $5.1 million in back wages as a result of alleged violations of overtime provisions in federal labor law.
“Cingular has agreed to pay back wages and to take positive steps to come into compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. “Their workers will receive more than $5 million in back wages and overtime pay and can now be assured that they will be paid for all hours worked.”
The Labor Department said an investigation by its Wage and Hour Division at the Springfield, Ill., call center found customer service representatives would begin work prior to the start of their scheduled shifts and, on occasion, continued to work after their shifts ended. Because the time worked off the clock was not recorded, according to the department, the employees did not receive compensation for it. The department said that after Cingular was made aware of the alleged violations, the Atlanta-based cell-phone operator worked cooperatively with it to come into compliance and compute the back wages at all of its call centers.
Cingular made no admission of liability in the case.
“We decided to reach the settlement announced today so that we can put this matter behind us and continue focusing on serving our customers and moving forward with our business,” said Clay Owen, a Cingular spokesman.
The employees worked at 25 call-center locations around the country.
A consent judgment agreeing to the payment of the back wages and future compliance with the overtime and record-keeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act was filed Jan. 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. The court must approve the consent decree.
On a related front, Cingular management and the Communications Workers of America began negotiations Wednesday on a new contract covering five union districts in the country. The current labor contract for those areas expires Feb. 5. CWA said the two issues expected to dominate discussions are job security regarding anticipated retail store closings as a result of Cingular’s $41 billion acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and pay/incentives.
