An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that ViaSource Solutions Inc., a call-center provider in Thousand Oaks, California, denied hundreds of call-center agents minimum wage and overtime pay in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by misclassifying them as independent contractors rather than employees. ViaSource has reclassified all call-center agents as employees and will pay $101,491 in back wages for minimum-wage violations to 435 employees plus $48,893 for unpaid overtime to 165 employees.
“Whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor under the FLSA is a legal question, determined by the actual employment relationship – not by any title, or any agreement between an employer and employee,” said Kimchi Bui, director of the Wage and Hour in Los Angeles. “We take worker misclassification very seriously, and will hold employers accountable to classify workers properly and to provide them with all the benefits entitled by law.”
