FLSA Collective Action Lawsuit Filed Against AmerisourceBergen

An Illinois plaintiff has filed an FLSA collective action lawsuit against her former employer, claiming that she and other employees were not paid rightfully for the time they worked.

Plaintiff Syrria Williams, the lead plaintiff in this FLSA collective action lawsuit, claims that she and other employees often worked for defendant AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation outside of the time for which they were paid.

AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation is a U.S. based drug wholesale company that was formed in 2001 with the merging of Bergen Brunswig and AmeriSource. It provides low cost options for over-the-counter and prescription drugs and home health care supplies to pharmacies and health systems including hospitals.

According to this FLSA collective action lawsuit, Williams worked in a call center managed and controlled by AmerisourceBergen as a telephone-based customer service representative. She was employed by AmerisourceBergen between July 2014 and June 2016 as a non-exempt employee in the company’s Naperville, Il. call center.

The hours for which she was paid to work for her employer were primarily on the phone as a customer service representative. However, she claims in this FLSA collective action lawsuit, that she was often required to do other tasks before and after her shift for which she was not paid.

These tasks included “booting up computers, initializing several software programs, reading company issued emails and instructions, and completing customer service calls.”

In essence, AmerisourceBergen required the call center employees to be ready to handle a call at the beginning of their shift. To do so, they had to ready their computer and read email before they were ready to take calls. They only got paid when they began taking calls.

Additionally, according to this FLSA collective action lawsuit, the call center employees including Williams needed to be available to be on the phone until the end of their shift, finishing out any call as needed even after their shift was done. They weren’t able to close things down or shut of their computers until after this.

They only were paid for their shift hours, even if their call took longer or they had to complete computer related things after the end of the shift.

The FLSA, or Fair Labor Standards Act, regulates wage practices of employers in the United States. Enacted in 1938 and amended many times since, essentially the FLSA makes sure employees are paid for overtime, paid for the time they work, given adequate breaks for rest and meals, and regulates how many hours that someone can work for regular pay versus overtime pay.

Williams estimates that the amount of unpaid work activities that she and other employees were required to do amounted to between 10 and 15 minutes per day per person.

She believes that AmerisourceBergen “knowingly required and/or permitted Plaintiff and other similarly situated telephone-dedicated employees to perform unpaid work before and after their scheduled shift times.” This is in violation of the FLSA, Williams alleges.

This FLSA Collective Action Lawsuit is Syrria Williams v. AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Case No. 1:17-cv-06071 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

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