Commission-Only Pay System at Heart of Call Center Agents' FLSA Suit

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The below companies and three individuals are the defendants in a proposed class and collective action alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA):

The defendants—all of whom specialize in call center services and marketing for inbound and outbound call companies, but also dabble in debt relief services and inside sales campaigns—allegedly utilize “questionable” tactics to generate their leads, which the case says include “sending misleading letters in order to entice distressed consumers to pick up the phone and call.” The bulk of this work, the case continues, is handled by call center workers referred to as agents.

The three named plaintiffs allege that instead of paying agents an hourly wage, the defendants compensated the employees on a contingent, commission-only basis for which commissions were paid, but were then “charged back”—meaning agents would have to return up to 100 percent of the commission—for sales that ended up being canceled within the first six months. As a result, proposed class/collective members were not paid proper minimum or time-and-a-half hourly overtime wages, the suit claims.