SEATTLE — A former customer service associate at Amazon has accused the company of failing to pay overtime wages, according to a lawsuit filed this month in Washington.
Wyeth Hall, who lives in Oklahoma and worked remotely for Amazon for eight months in 2020, said the company didn’t pay him for all the hours he worked — including the minutes spent booting up his computer and other applications every day.
Hall also accused the company of failing to keep accurate records of the hours he worked and the wages he was owed. He filed a collective action complaint against the company in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington last week. The complaint is on behalf of current and former customer service associates who worked virtually for Amazon in the U.S. in the last three years.
Rob Munoz, a spokesperson for Amazon, said the company could not comment on questions regarding the case but “we look forward to defending our claims through the legal process.”
Customer service associates are the “first point-of-contact” for customers, drivers and shippers in Amazon’s fulfillment center network that keeps online orders moving through its warehouses and to a shopper’s doorstep, according to the lawsuit. The associates help customers with refunds, sales, returns and exchanges as well as locating packages and fixing other issues with Amazon’s online marketplace.
Hall, who made $15 per hour, said he worked between 40 hours and 60 hours each week. He estimated he spent about an hour or two setting up his computer and other applications over the course of the week. Hall said he wasn’t able to clock in to Amazon’s timekeeping software until he had completely set up his work station.
Starting the clock after employees boot up their computers is a common practice in the customer service industry — and one that has led to several lawsuits over the last 20 years, according to Andrew Frisch, a co-managing partner of the employee rights group at the law firm Morgan & Morgan.
Call center operators expect employees to be “call-ready” by the time they clock in to their shift, Frisch said. That means workers have to spend 15 to 20 minutes each day setting up their equipment before the minutes start counting toward their salary.
To help make up for the uncompensated time, some employers will tack on extra income to each paycheck, and others will make clocking in the first step in the process, Frisch said, but a lot of employers still don’t get it right.
“These cases have been going on for at least 15 or 20 years. They’re the same case against different call center operators,” Frisch said. “I’ve never seen a call center that does it correctly.”
Similar cases come up outside the customer service industry, said Hardeep Rekhi, a partner at the law firm Rekhi & Wolk. If an employee has to wear a protective suit inside a factory, for example, are companies on the hook to pay for the time spent gearing up?
The “legal landscape generally says yes,” Rekhi said. “You should be paid for any time spent performing work for your employer, and that would include prep time.”
The outcomes of cases like the one Hall brought are especially important as many people are working remotely, which has introduced new questions about what counts as prep time, Rekhi said.
Hall and his legal representatives could not be reached for comment.
Inside Amazon’s warehouses, many workers say every minute does count. Warehouse employees have said Amazon monitors the pace of work, keeping track of how many items an employee moves per minute in some cases, and issuing repercussions if they fall behind. Amazon has denied those allegations, asserting that employees are free to take breaks as needed, and managers are told to prioritize safety over speed.
In 2021, workers sued the company for failing to pay employees for time spent going through COVID-19 testing procedures. Amazon argued the required screenings were not compensable work and were for everyone’s benefit, not just the company’s.
Some employees in Amazon’s corporate workforce have also alleged high expectations and a high stress environment.
Hall estimated in his lawsuit that Amazon has about 800 to 2,000 customer service associates working virtually to answer customer questions and keep its fulfillment center network running smoothly.
