What Protections Does the Fair Labor Standards Act Provide for Call Center Workers?

Among all of the responsibilities of the U.S. government, protecting the treatment of workers by their employers may be one of the most important. To that end, laws have been passed over the years with the intention of improving the treatment and pay of workers across the country. One of those laws, the Fair Labor Standards Act, offers particular protection for call center workers.

Unfortunately, call center workers are among those most at risk of being taken advantage of by their employers. Due to the nature of the work and the probability that these workers will be salaried rather than hourly, call center workers’ time is often improperly tracked and they are sometimes forced to work off-the-clock. The Fair Labor Standards Act lays out several protections aimed at combating this issue.

What Is the Fair Labor Standards Act?

According to the U.S. Office of Financial Management (OFM), the Fair Labor Standards Act is a federal law which establishes guidelines regarding minimum wage, record keeping, overtime pay eligibility, and child labor standards. This law applies to full- and part-time workers in federal, state, or local governments as well as the private sector.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the Fair Labor Standards Act ensures all nonexempt workers are paid a minimum wage not less than $7.25 per hour. It also states that employees must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 per week at a rate of at least one and one-half times the employees regular pay rate. The Act also stipulates that all employers must maintain worker pay and hour records.

How Are Call Center Workers Protected?

The Fair Labor Standards Act covers call center workers if the center where they work meets a few requirements or if the work they do falls into a certain category. Specifically, if a call center’s annual dollar volume of business is $500,000 or more and they have two employees or more, then they are covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The Act may also apply to workers individually even if the call center where they work doesn’t meet the previously stated requirements. Call center employees who engage in “ interstate commerce, the production of goods for interstate commerce, or in an occupation closely related and directly essential to such production,” are included, the DOL states.

For those who do qualify, the Fair Labor Standards Act requires call center employees be paid minimum wage as well as overtime. Employers of call center workers are required to keep records documenting each employee’s wages, hours, and other items. Employees of call centers must be paid for all hours worked. According to the DOL, “hours worked” can be defined as follows:

“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” is defined as “hours worked.”

The Fair Labor Standards Act also guarantees eligible call center workers paid rest periods of 20 minutes or less but does not guarantee a paid meal period.

Call center workers face a number of vulnerabilities when it comes to workplace protections. These issues have come increasingly to light during our nation’s coronavirus pandemic. The Communications Workers of America, a union, issued a press release in April, that discussed these issues. The union said that the operators of large call centers need to do more to protect call center workers.

In many cases, these workers are forced to work in close proximity to one another, if they are not allowed to work remotely. The Center for Disease Control has reportedly discussed these health risks, stressing that companies should protect workers from the risks of COVID-19, including call center workers. Reportedly, communications industry experts have noted that call center workers are particularly at risk for contracting or spreading COVID-19.

Some workers have lost their jobs or had their pay cut as a result of COVID-19. This means that call center workers are being left vulnerable in multiple ways in a global pandemic.

However, these workers face challenges to standing up for workers’ rights. The Communications Workers of America noted that the financial industry relies heavily on call center workers, but has “one of the lowest rates of union representation” in the United States. This means that thousands of workers in this industry go without the protections and bargaining power that a union can offer. Though the Fair Labor Standards Act is essential to call center workers’ rights, unions can help hold companies accountable and ensure that call center workers’ rights are being upheld. 

Fair Labor Standards Act Overtime Regulations

The Fair Labor Standards Act stipulates that all nonexempt employees who work in excess of 40 hours a week must be paid overtime. For call center workers, this means that if their “hours worked”, as defined above, exceeds 40 hours, they are legally owed overtime.

The DOL states that an employees regular pay rate can be determined on an hourly, commission, salary, or “some other basis”. Overtime pay must not fall below one and one-half times that normal rate. To determine an employee’s regular pay rate, the DOL instructs employers to divide a worker’s total pay in a workweek by the total number of hours they worked during that week.

Filing a Call Center Worker Violation Lawsuit

If you have put in the time to work for your employer, you should be fairly paid for that time and employee misclassification is a real problem. Luckily, there are options for call center workers whose employers have denied them full pay and overtime benefits. In the past, call center overtime lawsuits have resulted in settlements in excess of $15 million and many have been settled in employees’ favor. If you feel you have been denied overtime pay as a call center worker, a civil suit may be a good option for seeking justice.

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