NEWS: Lawsuit accuses T-Mobile of asking staff to email 'off the clock'

T-Mobile could face a class action lawsuit over claims that it made
employees work without pay using mobile phones and email devices. The
US suit highlights concerns about employee rights at a time of
always-on communications.

Law firm Pelton and Associates in New York has put out a call for
people to join a class action over the issue. Class action suits are
a way for a single hearing to judge the cases of many people in very
similar situations. They can result in payouts of billions of dollars
in damages because of the potentially large number of litigants.
There is no equivalent form of action in the UK.

According to its court filing, the case is currently being taken on
behalf of three former employees of T-Mobile.

It says that the three men were asked to work unpaid by opening and
closing T-Mobile shops, arranging rotas and participating in calls
while not logged into the company's time-recording system.

"The Complaint alleges that T-Mobile hired retail sales associates
and supervisors who were required to work well over forty hours per
week yet were not paid wages or overtime compensation for all of the
hours that they were required to work," said a statement from Pelton
and Associates.

"The Complaint alleges that these employees were issued T-Mobile
smart devices and were required to review and respond to numerous
T-Mobile-related emails and text messages at all hours of the day and
night, whether or not they were logged into T-Mobile's computer-based
timekeeping system," it said.

The suit claims that T-Mobile broke US employment law as well as
state laws in New York and California.

"The Complaint also alleges that the employees were required to take
and place T-Mobile-related telephone calls, participate on T-Mobile
conference calls and to work 'off the clock' during scheduled lunch
breaks," said the law firm's statement.

"While plaintiffs were classified as non-exempt hourly employees they
were typically required to spend 10-15 hours per week reviewing and
responding to email, texts, phone calls, participating on conference
calls and studying/reviewing corporate documents for which they were
not paid any compensation," said the court filing.

MORE: <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/12/t_mobile_email_case/>