Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Employees at a Tucson call center will receive $352,376 in back wages following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Investigators found that Convergys Corporation failed to include all time worked when calculating regular and overtime pay for 1,396 workers and failed to keep accurate records of time worked.

“Workers deserve to be paid for all the hours they work, and to receive overtime pay when appropriate,” said George Friday, regional administrator for the Wage and Hour Division in San Francisco. “The workers in this case were not compensated for their full work day, and I am very pleased that we were able to recover more than $350,000 in back wages for them.”

The Wage and Hour Division’s Phoenix office determined that Convergys failed to compensate service representatives for pre-shift work time. When the pre-shift time was included with other work hours, the employees qualified for additional overtime pay in weeks when their work hours exceeded forty hours. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that employers keep accurate records of all hours worked and pay non-exempt employees no less than one-and-one-half times their regular rate of pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

The company has agreed to comply with the recordkeeping and overtime provisions of the FLSA at each of its U.S. call centers. Convergys, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides communications, financial services, technology and human resource services. Employees will receive the back pay for work performed between September 13, 2002 and August 30, 2005.

The Wage and Hour Division offers a user-friendly Web site, located at www.wagehour.dol.gov, to help employers properly pay and classify their employees and learn more about the FLSA.

Information about the FLSA is also available from the Phoenix Wage and Hour office at (602) 514-7100 or the Department of Labor's toll-free help line at 1-866-4US-WAGE (1-866-487-9243).

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U.S. Department of Labor releases are accessible on the Internet at www.dol.gov. The information in this news release will be made available in alternate format (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the COAST office upon request. Please specify which news release when placing your request at (202) 693-7828 or TTY (202) 693-7755. The Labor Department is committed to providing America’s employers and employees with easy access to understandable information on how to comply with its laws and regulations. For more information, please visit www.dol.gov/compliance.