Technician Alleges Charter, Spectrum Fail to Pay Wages for Work-Related Cell Phone Use, Off-The-Clock Tasks

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Charter Communications, Inc. is among three defendants in a proposed collective action filed by a technician who claims he and similarly situated employees receive no compensation at all for time spent checking their cell phones for work purposes or mapping routes to the day’s first assignment.

The lawsuit, which also names as defendants Charter Communications, LLC, Spectrum Management Holding Company and TWC Administration, LLC, claims Charter employs roughly 10,000 workers responsible for installing, upgrading and troubleshooting its cable and Internet services. It’s company practice, the case says, for technicians to check their cell phones each day to be informed of job assignments, as well as to use GPS to plot out an appropriate route to their first stop of the day. The suit claims, however, that Charter technicians are not allowed to clock in for work until they arrive “at the driveway of their first job of the day,” unless some other specific work-related obligation arose prior to the day’s first job.

As the case tells it, the technicians, who are more or less tethered to their phones throughout the entire workday, also receive no compensation for certain tasks performed at the end of their shifts. From the complaint:

“ [The plaintiff], and all others similarly situated, are required, at the end of each workday, to remove certain equipment from their Charter vehicle and to return the equipment to their Charter vehicle on the next workday and prior to driving to their first customer job of the day.  

Technicians are not compensated for time spent removing or returning equipment to their company vehicle each workday. 

Technicians are subject to discipline, up to termination, for failure to remove certain equipment from their vehicle daily and are subject to having to reimburse Charter for any loss of or damage to such equipment.”

The suit goes on to allege technicians also receive no compensation for end-of-shift vehicle inspections.