Cable Television Installation & Service Hit with Wage and Hour Lawsuit

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

Three cable installation technicians have filed suit against their former employers, Cable Television Installation & Service, LLC (CTIS) and three individual managers, to recover allegedly unpaid wages. The proposed collective action, out of Florida federal court, alleges the defendants deprived the plaintiffs of lawful minimum wage and time-and-a-half overtime pay.

The plaintiffs allege that they routinely worked more than 60 hours per week performing cable television installation and repair services out of a CTIS warehouse in Georgia. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs were paid a “piece rate” wage for each job performed, which, in many weeks, added up to less than the federal minimum wage for each hour worked. The lawsuit further alleges that the plaintiffs received “some pay designated as ‘overtime’ wages,” but the amount allegedly fell short of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s time-and-a-half overtime wage requirements as it was based on a sub-minimum regular hourly rate. The plaintiffs also claim they received a “production bonus” that was not taken into account when calculating their overtime pay rate.

Furthermore, the lawsuit claims the defendants “maintained a policy of deducting significant amounts” from the plaintiffs’ paychecks for damaged equipment, missing tools, and failed quality control audits. These unauthorized “backcharges,” according to the suit, were mislabeled on the plaintiffs’ wage statements as “loan repays” and contributed to their pay rates falling below the federal minimum wage.

Finally, the lawsuit claims the defendants failed to properly record the plaintiffs’ hours worked. Per company policy, the workers’ shifts ended when their last jobs were “closed out,” which, according to the lawsuit, failed to account for the time they spent traveling to and/or working at the defendants’ warehouse at the end of the day and further added to their allegedly unpaid wages.