Philips North America Call Center Workers Owed Unpaid Overtime, Lawsuit Alleges

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A proposed collective action alleges customer service representatives at Philips North America’s Georgia call center are owed unpaid overtime wages dating back to last year. 

The 10-page lawsuit says that the plaintiff and at least 50 other customer service reps at Philips’ Alpharetta, Georgia facility have not been paid time-and-a-half overtime wages since the pay period ending on December 5, 2021. The lawsuit relays that when the plaintiff and her colleagues complained, Philips North America and Philips RS North America “prohibited them from discussing their unpaid overtime during work hours,” and told the employees that they would likely not be paid the overtime owed to them until mid-February 2022. 

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff is owed more than $7,000 in unpaid overtime wages, including holiday pay and incentive bonuses. 

“Plaintiffs, and similarly situated employees literally live check to check and Defendants [sic] withholding of their overtime income is causing them to experience substantial financial hardships, including falling behind on bills and facing evictions, motor vehicle repossession and home foreclosures,” the case says. 

Although Philips call center employees track their hours through the Kronos payroll system, and track their overtime hours on spreadsheets in compliance with Phillips’ request to do so, the workers have nevertheless been deprived of overtime for the last three bi-weekly pay periods, the complaint alleges. 

According to the case, the plaintiff worked 10 hours, 12 hours and 11 hours of overtime over the last three pay periods, respectively, and was not paid time-and-a-half for these hours, nor the $500 incentive bonus she was due. The plaintiff claims she was also not paid for the roughly 50 hours she has spent working through lunch breaks since July 19, 2021.

Philips’ alleged failure to pay proper overtime wages amounts to a knowing, willful and/or reckless violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the suit says. 

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