AT&T target of $1 billion class-action lawsuits from employees
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
More than 5,000 current and former AT&T workers have filed two $1 billion class-action lawsuits accusing the telecommunications company of withholding overtime pay from its so-called first-level managers in an attempt to defray labor costs.
The suits were filed in the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta and also in the U.S. District Courts for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.
The suits accuse the company of wrongfully classifying a certain group of BellSouth Corp. employees as being unable to receive overtime pay under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
According to court documents, AT&T began “misclassifying” these workers just after it bought BellSouth, which was based in Atlanta.
“Determined to squeeze where it can, [AT&T] deliberately flouts federal and state wage and hour protections in order to extract grueling hours from the company’s small army of [low-level] managers,” the documents say.
AT&T is based in Dallas. The company’s wireless unit, AT&T Mobility, is based in Atlanta.
“AT&T values its employees and complies with all federal and state wage and hour laws. We have no comment on these cases," the company said in a statement.
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