Victory For Cable Installers In Overtime Lawsuit
Posted on Mar 08, 2016
On March 2, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued its ruling in Monroe v. FTS, which affirmed an award of back pay to cable installers who were required by their employer to under-report their overtime hours. FTS USA contracts with various cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner to provide cable installation and support. In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit affirmed that FTS USA LLC and its parent company, UniTek USA LLC, violated the FLSA rights of a group of 296 cable technicians employed across the country.
Cable and satellite technicians work in an industry that routinely violates federal and state wage laws. In this lawsuit, a corporate policy was exposed that required workers to work off the clock before or after scheduled hours or during supposed lunch breaks and altering the times technicians had previously entered on their time cards. At trial, 17 technicians testified about the number of unrecorded hours they worked, which the court found to be representative of the class. The evidence showed that the unlawful time recording policy was created at the corporate level and communicated to its workers in the field. Ultimately, the Sixth Circuit correctly found that under the FLSA, employees must be paid for all hours worked.