Plaintiff Shannon Barron filed a collective and class-action complaint on Friday in the Southern District of Ohio against Charter Communications for Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Ohio FRCP violations, claiming that the defendant did not pay its non-exempt employees for all hours worked.
The plaintiff worked in the defendant’s Dublin, Ohio, customer service center from October 2008 to July 30, 2020. The plaintiff and other similarly situated employees are employed as non-exempt employees under the FLSA, who are paid an hourly wage.
The plaintiff proffered that she and other similarly situated employees “were required by (the d)efendant to perform unpaid work before clocking in each day, including but not limited to starting and logging into (the d)efendant’s computer systems, numerous software applications, and phone system.” The plaintiff averred that Charter Communications “arbitrarily failed to count this work…as ‘hours worked.’” Plaintiff Barron claimed that this work was performed every day “and it constituted a part of their fixed and regular working time.” Furthermore, the plaintiff claimed that this was ascertainable to the defendant and did not provide an administrative difficulty to record this alleged unpaid work time “by allowing them to clock in and be paid before they brought up (the d)efendant’s computer systems, applications, and phone system.” The plaintiff argued that this should be considered part of the plaintiff’s and other employees’ “principal activities” because they “cannot perform their work” without turning on and logging into these systems.
The plaintiff had similar allegations for the end of the work day routine during which the plaintiff and other employees were “shutting down and logging out of (the d)efendant’s computer systems, numerous software applications, and phone system,” but the time spent performing these tasks was purportedly not counted towards their “hours worked.” Plaintiff Barron also accused Charter Communication for using “a timekeeping system” whereby employees “are not paid for all hours worked.” Specifically, the plaintiff claimed that employees “are not compensated for the time spent not logged into call programs or any other time spent working to log in to or out of the computer systems, applications, and phone system.” Subsequently, the plaintiff also alleged that the defendant failed to pay overtime compensation and failed to keep accurate records.
The collective action includes all similarly situated employees and the class includes all similarly situated employees in Ohio. Charter Communications is accused of violating the FLSA, the Ohio Revised Code 4111,03 and Article II § 34A of the Ohio Constitution, and the Ohio Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act for the aforementioned conduct.
Plaintiff Barron has sought for this to proceed as a collective action and for class members to “opt in”; an award for actual, compensatory, and punitive damages; pre- and post-judgment interest, and other relief.
The plaintiff is represented by the Law Office of Michael L. Fradin with Nilges Draher LLC.
