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ENLARGE
Workers at Dell Inc.'s Roseburg call center console each other after being told the call center was closing in August 2007. Workers were not given any advance warning of the closure.
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ENLARGE
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The Dell call center, which opened in the former site of an Albertson's store on Northeast Stephens Street in 2002, once employed 350 workers.
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ENLARGE
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Sales representative Karrie Baughman works on the computer at her desk in the Dell call center in the North Roseburg Plaza, in this file photo from September 2006.
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Dell Inc. has settled a lawsuit alleging the computer manufacturer made its call center employees in Roseburg and four other states work off the clock and shorted the workers' overtime pay.
A settlement agreement was filed Sept. 30 in U.S. District Court in Eugene. The agreement came two months before the deadline for lawyers on both sides of the class action suit to submit their pretrial motions to the court.
Terms of the agreement — which affected 1,406 call center workers from Roseburg, Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee — were not made public. U.S. Magistrate Thomas Coffin sealed the judgment in the case, following a request from the attorneys.
Neither lawyers for the plaintiffs or the defendants returned calls seeking comment. It's standard for the parties in employment suits to sign confidentiality agreements in which they're barred from divulging the terms of the agreement.
Former Dell employees David Norman and Walter Romas filed suit in February 2007, alleging that they put in extra time every shift that wasn't accounted for on their time sheets.
The two Roseburg men said they were required to attend daily meetings called “huddles” that lasted 20 to 30 minutes, yet they weren't paid for that time. In addition, they had to turn on their computers, review product memos and respond to e-mails before they were allowed to clock in, the lawsuit claimed. They also had to perform other duties after their shifts ended and after they clocked out.
Although workers were regularly denied a full hour for lunch, their time cards reflected an hour deduction, according to court documents. Some workers also responded to business e-mails from home and allegedly weren't compensated.
The lawsuit involved only full-time telephone representatives. Coffin ruled that part-time workers, who are covered under different employment rules than full-time workers, could still sue but had to do so individually.
Only about 50 of the 1,300 telephone sales representatives working for the company at a given time nationwide worked less than 40 hours per week, according to court documents.
Spherion Corp., an agency that hired employees on Dell's behalf at the Roseburg call center and other locations, was originally named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit. The agency was later dropped from the suit after attorneys on both sides agreed the affected workers were never employed by Spherion.
Dell opened the call center in the former Albertsons building on Northeast Stephens Street at Garden Valley Boulevard and operated between September 2002 and August 2007.
In September 2006, Dell reported having 350 Roseburg employees. In court documents, the company reported the turnover among telephone sales representatives nationwide averaged 65 percent per year.
The company closed the operation without notice on an employee “pajama day.” Dell denied the closure, which only affected the Roseburg call center, had anything to do with the filing of the lawsuit.
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@nrtoday.com.
A settlement agreement was filed Sept. 30 in U.S. District Court in Eugene. The agreement came two months before the deadline for lawyers on both sides of the class action suit to submit their pretrial motions to the court.
Terms of the agreement — which affected 1,406 call center workers from Roseburg, Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee — were not made public. U.S. Magistrate Thomas Coffin sealed the judgment in the case, following a request from the attorneys.
Neither lawyers for the plaintiffs or the defendants returned calls seeking comment. It's standard for the parties in employment suits to sign confidentiality agreements in which they're barred from divulging the terms of the agreement.
Former Dell employees David Norman and Walter Romas filed suit in February 2007, alleging that they put in extra time every shift that wasn't accounted for on their time sheets.
The two Roseburg men said they were required to attend daily meetings called “huddles” that lasted 20 to 30 minutes, yet they weren't paid for that time. In addition, they had to turn on their computers, review product memos and respond to e-mails before they were allowed to clock in, the lawsuit claimed. They also had to perform other duties after their shifts ended and after they clocked out.
Although workers were regularly denied a full hour for lunch, their time cards reflected an hour deduction, according to court documents. Some workers also responded to business e-mails from home and allegedly weren't compensated.
The lawsuit involved only full-time telephone representatives. Coffin ruled that part-time workers, who are covered under different employment rules than full-time workers, could still sue but had to do so individually.
Only about 50 of the 1,300 telephone sales representatives working for the company at a given time nationwide worked less than 40 hours per week, according to court documents.
Spherion Corp., an agency that hired employees on Dell's behalf at the Roseburg call center and other locations, was originally named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit. The agency was later dropped from the suit after attorneys on both sides agreed the affected workers were never employed by Spherion.
Dell opened the call center in the former Albertsons building on Northeast Stephens Street at Garden Valley Boulevard and operated between September 2002 and August 2007.
In September 2006, Dell reported having 350 Roseburg employees. In court documents, the company reported the turnover among telephone sales representatives nationwide averaged 65 percent per year.
The company closed the operation without notice on an employee “pajama day.” Dell denied the closure, which only affected the Roseburg call center, had anything to do with the filing of the lawsuit.
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@nrtoday.com.
