A lawsuit was recently filed against Yelp, the San Francisco based company that provides business reviews, dining reservations, and other marketing services to businesses across the country. The lawsuit alleges that Yelp’s sales agents “were often on sales calls well past the end of their scheduled shift,” but that Yelp failed to pay them for all hours worked in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The lawsuit also makes claims for off-the-clock work for time spent starting-up and shutting-down computer systems and for time spent attending sales meetings and training sessions. Although Yelp permits sales agents to record their own time, the lawsuit claims that sales agents were discouraged from recording any time worked outside of their scheduled shift start and end time. The lawsuit seeks unpaid overtime wages for sales agents that worked in excess of forty hours in a single week.
Unpaid Overtime Wages in Violation of the FLSA
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that non-exempt employees be paid at a rate of one-and-one-half times their regular hourly rate for any hours worked in excess of forty hours in any single work week. Even if a non-exempt employee is paid on a salary basis they are still entitled to overtime premiums for any hours worked in excess of forty in a single work week. According to the lawsuit, Yelp classified sales agents as non-exempt employees.
Individuals that are or were employed by Yelp at any one of its brick-and-mortar call centers may be eligible to join in the lawsuit to collect unpaid wages.