CRM - April 2008 - (Page 19)

Insight take 10, 15, 20 minutes to do all that.” Consequently, many contact centers started forcing agents to log in directly to the Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), with the ACD serving as the time clock. That way, Reynolds says, contact centers would not pay employees until they were logged in and ready to take calls. Reynolds says the number of unpaid minutes cited in the AT&T lawsuit is excessive—she explains it generally takes between five minutes and 10 minutes to log in and open up all relevant applications. She also believes these lawsuits could be a slippery slope for relations between employees and supervisors. “Most call centers feel this [log-in time] is more than balanced by the fact that agents take extra break time or go into ‘unavailable’ states on the phone during times for which they’re on the clock, and [are] being paid when they are not working,” she explains. Reynolds says she doesn’t think contact centers will go so far as to reintroduce time clocks independent from ACDs, Pending lawsuits filed against AT&T and other companies over unpaid but she offers a solution to the entire contact center wages could change the traditional value model issue of payment for log-in/log-out periagainst AT&T subsidiary Southwestern ods: Agents can log into the ACD’s timehe issues over payment and the Fair Labor Standards Act Bell in a Kansas federal court. “Call cen- clock function and immediately list (FLSA), a federal law govern- ter employees from a number of loca- themselves as “unavailable.” They can ing proper compensation, are tions, in a number of states, appear to take five to 10 minutes to get ready and no longer restricted to the Wal-Marts of have been denied wages and overtime for then switch their status to “available.” The question of how to pay contact the world. Now, contact center agents are work performed before and after their center agents will not die with joining the litigation fray: This past Jan- shifts and during meal and rest uary, AT&T was hit with a wage suit by breaks,” says David Schlesinger, Lawsuits could be the AT&T suit, however. Lawsuits alleging FLSA violations some of its contact center workers over an attorney for the plaintiffs. regarding payment of contact (An AT&T spokesperson de- a slippery slope alleged FLSA violations. center workers have also The suit alleges that AT&T required clined to comment for this arti- for relations landed at the doorsteps of agents to perform unpaid work before cle, citing a corporate policy between other large companies, inand after each work shift, including covering pending litigation.) cluding Qwest, Dell, CitiPenny Reynolds, senior employees and booting up computers, starting several group, and JPMorgan Chase. software programs, and performing cus- partner at The Call Center supervisors. If these lawsuits move toward tomer call-backs. According to the suit, School, a Tennessee-based conthose activities required work of approx- tact center training company, believes a monetary settlement, the payout could imately 30 minutes per day per person. there has been a definitive switch in how be immense.“There are sizeable implicaThough the suit doesn’t specify a dollar most contact centers have workers log in. tions when you’re talking about 30 minamount, the plaintiffs are asking for “Years ago in the call center, employees utes per day, per employee,” Reynolds unpaid wages going back two to three would come in and clock in, at a tradi- explains. “It’s nothing to be sneezed at. years, the maximum allowed by the tional time clock. Then they’d go get You’re really going to see a lot of call centheir coffee and start taking calls,” she ters rethink their log-in procedures and statute of limitations. And that’s not the AT&T family’s only recalls. “It was viewed as lost time, so to rules to make sure that they’re not poconcern—a similar case is pending speak, in the call center because it might tentially liable.” —Christopher Musico Labor Disputes Reach The Contact Center T www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | APRIL 2008 19 http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - April 2008

CRM - April 2008 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point A Tenancy of One’s Own The Rebirth of Taxes destinationCRM Dashboard Labor Disputes Reach The Contract Center The Plight of the Wirelines Required Reading The 2008 Service Awards The 2008 Service Leader Awards Customer Self-Service Microsoft Genesys Oracle eGain Astute Solutions The 2008 Rising Stars The 2008 Service Elite Awar Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - April 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.