Suit alleges National General call centers failed to pay earned wages, overtime

St. Louis – National General Insurance Company (formerly GMAC) has consistently violated federal and state wage and hour laws by failing to pay its call center employees all earned wages and overtime and failing to accurately record all time worked before and after their shifts, according to a lawsuit recently filed by Weinhaus & Potashnick, Liberman, Goldstein & Karsh and Patterson Harkavy.

The suit seeks to recover unpaid wages and overtime compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Missouri law, which provide for such recompense.

A large property and casualty insurance company, National General employs hundreds of workers staffing customer service lines in five call centers located in St. Louis, Winston-Salem, NC, Cleveland, OH, Hillsboro, OR, and Ontario, CA.

The lawsuit alleges National General maintained a written policy requiring all of its call center employees to be ready to receive calls at their scheduled start time, requiring employees to come in early to access computers, systems and programs needed to receive calls, without compensation for the extra time spent at work.

The suit further alleges that National General’s policies punish employees for accessing and logging out of those computers, systems and programs on paid time, requiring employees to boot up and shut down computers “off-the-clock.”