Pyramid Consulting Accused of Unlawful Pay Practices

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Pyramid Consulting, Inc. is on the receiving end of a proposed class action lawsuit filed by a former employee who claims she was not properly paid while working as a project manager for the defendant’s client, AT&T. According to the suit, the defendant provided information technology staffing to other businesses, allowing its employees to work as consultants for its clients. From the complaint:

“To compete for business with telecommunications Clients, Defendant routinely and frequently underbilled such Clients for hours worked by its Consultants, affirmatively instructed its Consultants and its own supervisory employees to do the same, discouraged recording of overtime or accurate tracking of hours worked, and/or turned a blind eye to the falsification and underreporting of Consultant hours worked.”

On top of that, the suit argues, the defendant engaged in a “rate-splitting” practice and paid its consultants in taxable and non-taxable portions. The plaintiff says she was paid $40.00 per hour, which was split into a $28.00-per-hour “Consultant’s Rate” and a $12-per-hour “per diem” rate purporting to cover job-related expenses. According to the plaintiff, the “per diem” rate was not actually reimbursement for expenses but was “part of the total weekly or monthly compensation paid to [consultants] for their work performed and services rendered.”

The suit argues that the defendant unlawfully determined consultants’ overtime rate based on the “Consultant’s Rate” alone and did not include the “per diem” rate in its calculation of their “regular rate pay,” resulting in lower overtime wages.