Employees who were allegedly denied Waste Management overtime pay may be eligible to join a waste disposal worker class action lawsuit investigation.

Recent employee complaints suggest that waste management companies may not be paying their workers the overtime wages that they are owed. According to employee reports, the problem of denying overtime wages and other benefits is a systemic issue with Waste Management overtime that impacts countless other workers.

Specifically, disposal employees have complained that waste companies may have committed the following wage and hour violations:

• Off the clock work
• Miscalculating overtime rates
• Miscalculating sick pay
• Miscalculating day rates
• Deducting pay for meal breaks that were never taken

These complaints have led to a class action lawsuit against Waste Management Inc., filed by a Texas driver who claims he was denied Waste Management overtime when he worked over 40 hours a week.

Unpaid Overtime

The Texas man alleges that he was paid his day rate for all of his hours instead of having his wages paid at his overtime rate. Additionally, the Waste Management overtime class action claims that the company deducted pay for a daily 30-minute meal period which the driver did not take.

“WMI made this deduction despite its actual knowledge that Plaintiff and the Putative Class Members did not take a meal-period break, and instead continued driving their respective routes for WMI’s benefit during the alleged meal breaks,” the Waste Management overtime suit claims.

The plaintiff argues that he rarely got to take his lunches and worked off the clock during his allotted meal times in order to complete his work. Therefore, the company allegedly failed to pay him for off the clock work he put in daily.

His complaint is like others filed alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Another Waste Management overtime lawsuit claims that the disposal company forces its employees to work off the clock before the mandatory morning meeting. Before this meeting, workers are allegedly required to complete duties including: picking up and preparing the equipment for the day, reviewing the work for the day, making changes to work orders, reviewing paperwork, reviewing manifests, and finalizing the route for the day.

Although employees are reportedly allowed to clock in 15 minutes before the meeting to accomplish these tasks, plaintiffs claim they are allegedly “not paid for those 15 minutes, even though waste collectors are performing the required tasks integral and indispensable to their performance.”

Other Wage and Hour Complaints

Companies other than Waste Management also face waste disposal suits. One lawsuit against Waste Pro and Delta Sanitation claims that the companies’ workers were paid a flat per diem rate but this rate was reduced to half if employees worked less than four hours a day. Although this makes sense in theory, the policy allegedly caused issues with overtime pay.

If a worker worked over 40 hours for a whole week, their time worked over 40 hours should be compensated at time and a half rate. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit argue that they should have been paid at their overtime pay rates instead of their reduced pay rates for typical pay.

Employees of waste disposal companies who were subject to wage and hour violations may be eligible to participate in a Waste Management overtime lawsuit investigation to recover unpaid wages.