Geico class action alleges company fails to pay workers for preshift duties

Geico class action lawsuit overview:

• Who: Plaintiff Chris Rice filed a class action lawsuit against Geico.
• Why: Geico allegedly fails to pay its remote sales representatives for the time they work pre- and post-shift and for “downtime” due to technical problems.
• Where: The Geico pay class action lawsuit was filed in Georgia federal court.

Geico fails to pay its employees for all of the hours they worked, according to a class action lawsuit filed Oct. 19 in Georgia federal court.

Plaintiff Chris Rice says he worked as a Geico sales representative and was paid hourly. In March 2020, he says Geico began remotely employing sales representatives.

Geico also adjusted its pay and timekeeping practices to reflect the change to remote work, the Geico class action lawsuit explains.

Rice says that remote sales representatives utilized a Cisco software application called Finesse to handle calls. This application tracks the amount of time a sales representative is logged into it, but it allegedly does not track all of the time Geico employees spend performing other work activities.

Geico class action says company does not pay for pre- and post-shift work

Prior to logging in to Finesse, Geico sales representatives must spend several minutes completing a multi-step process to ensure they are logged in to Finesse at their scheduled shift start time, Rice says.

This process reportedly includes powering up the computer, loading Microsoft Windows, connecting to Geico’s virtual private network (VPN), loading the programs required to handle sales calls and reading and responding to emails.

“Sales representatives must perform these work tasks in order to perform their job handling sales calls,” the Geico pay lawsuit asserts.

It also takes several minutes to complete a multi-step process to log out of the computer programs and respond to emails at the end of their schedule shift time, but these minutes are similarly not tracked by Finesse, Rice says.

Rice claims that sales representatives often experienced technical problems during the workday, but were expected to remain near their computers or on the phone to seek assistance from a supervisor or the IT department so they could access Finesse.

However, when such “downtime” occurred, Geico would allegedly require sales representatives to make up the time by working past the end of their scheduled shift or have the time deducted from their accrued paid leave. 

Rice says he routinely worked approximately two unpaid hours per week due to technical problems. He says Geico unlawfully retaliated against him when he complained that his time sheet did not reflect all of the hours he worked.

Rice filed the Geico pay lawsuit on behalf of himself and other current and former Geico sales representatives who worked at a call center in the United States at any time since Oct. 19, 2020.

The Geico class action lawsuit alleges Geico violated the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime wage requirements.

Geico was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it charged excessive premiums during the COVID-19 pandemic when people drove less.

Have you experienced Geico pay issues? Tell us about your experience in the comments!

Rice is represented by Nicholas Stanojevich and Richard Rouco of Quinn Connor Weaver Davies & Rouco LLP and David W. Garrison, Joshua A. Frank and Nicole A. Chanin of Barrett Johnston Martin & Garrison PLLC.

The Geico pay class action lawsuit is Chris Rice v. Government Employee Insurance Company d/b/a GEICO, et al., Case No. 5:23-cv-00414-TES, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, Macon Division.

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