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StumbleEmployee files lawsuit against Amazon.com, seeks class-action status
Employee says workers’ time on the clock rounded to quarter hour
Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009 | 11:02 a.m.
A former Amazon.com worker in Las Vegas is seeking class-action status for a lawsuit claiming the company's warehouse workers nationwide have been shorted on overtime pay.
Attorneys for Richard Austin filed suit in federal court in Seattle, where Amazon.com is based, on Nov. 25.
The suit said Austin was a warehouse associate for Amazon.com from September 2008 through August at its "Nevada Distribution Center.''
It wasn't clear which warehouse Austin worked at and his attorneys couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
Amazon.com has a warehouse that opened last fall in North Las Vegas, as well as a warehouse in Fernley in Northern Nevada. This spring, Amazon.com announced plans to close another warehouse in Red Rock, Nev., near Fernley.
Austin's suit charges Amazon.com required warehouse workers to clock in and out before their scheduled start and end times and then rounded their times to the nearest quarter hour.
"For example, if an employee clocked in seven minutes or less before their scheduled start time, Amazon.com would treat the employee’s time as though he/she clocked in at their scheduled start time and consequently would not compensate the employee for the preliminary time prior to their scheduled start time,'' the suit charges.
"Conversely, if an employee clocked out seven minutes or less after their scheduled end time, Amazon.com would treat the employee’s time as though he/she clocked out at their scheduled end time and consequently would not compensate the employee for that postliminary time,'' the suit says.
"Defendant failed to pay plaintiff and other members of the class overtime compensation for the hours they have worked in excess of the maximum hours permissible by law ... even though members of the class regularly worked, and did in fact work overtime hours,'' the suit says.
"The employment practices of defendant were and are uniform throughout the United States in all respects material to the claims asserted in this complaint,'' the lawsuit alleges.
A request for comment on the allegations was placed Tuesday with Amazon.com.
The suit was filed by Seattle attorney Matthew Ide as well as attorneys who have sued other employers over wage claims in Nevada: Mark Thierman in Reno, David Markham of Clark & Markham in San Diego and Walter Haines of United Employees Law Group in Long Beach, Calif.
The lawsuit alleges that besides its Nevada warehouses, the allegations cover Amazon.com warehouses in Arizona, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.
The timeclock rounding allegations are similar to those pending in a 2008 lawsuit against Station Casinos Inc. of Las Vegas covering as many as 20,000 current or former workers.
Action on that suit -- now being litigated in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas -- has been delayed by Station's bankruptcy.
Station has said in court filings the timeclock rounding system slightly over-compensates employees in some case and slightly under-compensates them in others, but overall "averages out so that employees are fully compensated for all the time they actually work."
Besides its Amazon.com warehouses in Nevada, the company last month completed its acquisition of footwear and apparel retailer Zappos.com of Henderson, a deal value at $847 million when it was announced in July.
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Clocking in/out does not necessarily correspond to actual work performed. Just because you swipe your card a few minutes pre-shift may just mean you are at work and ready to go when shift starts; swiping out a few minutes late does not necessarily mean you were working those minutes - just that you were a bit tardy making it to the time clock.
If Amazon employees were actually working during those extra minutes, then the allegations may have merit.
At Zappos.com, time card swipes and phone log in/out times were correlated, and OT was paid automatically if both showed extra time was put in.
Station Casinos statement/admission some employees are 'under-compensated' should result in a summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs in their suit.
Oh, and even though it is truly 'state of the art', $847 million is a lot to pay for a warehouse...
I used to clock in when I entered my place of employment in the morning about 15 minutes before my starting time. I would relax and have a cup of coffee and then start work at the prescribed time. I should not be paid for the time I spent having coffee and didn't expect to.
It is unrealistic to expect all employees to clock in and out at the exact start and stop time. Seven minutes before and seven minutes after the shift is not unreasonable. Stop your whining and be grateful that you have a job in this bad economy.
Frivolous lawsuit. Every company I have ever worked for use this method of rounding. It allows people to clock in and gives them time to get to their job. So they are not actually required to work during that 7 minutes.
Gonna disagree with the posts so far. Rounding is no more ethical than purposely clocking in and out incorrectly. I have had many jobs that used this practice. Yes, sometimes I clocked in early and it took five minutes or more to start to do "work", that doesn't mean I shouldn't get paid for that. That is about as logical as saying that in between shifts I should be docked for minutes not doing "work," like using the bathroom, or the time spent walking from one table to the next in a restaurant.
I had one job where if you clocked in one second after your scheduled time it bumped you six minutes forward, but didn't credit you if you clocked in early.
It's not about the money lost, it's about the casualness of management in regards to the treatment of hourly wage earners. We aren't talking about people making $50/hr here. Warehouse workers. So what, $10-15/hr?
If an employee is clocking in early and not working or standing around and waiting to clock out. It is the job of the supervisor to give corrective actions and eventually fire that employee.
Hopefully this lawsuit will go through and force all companies to adopt more ethical and accurate practices.
Our country is now over run with frivolous lawsuits. No matter what system of "clock in/out" used, there will always be someone trying to take advantage. It is the nature of the work force. Lawsuit like these will only hurt everyone, Amazon.com would have to cut expenses somewhere to compensate for the litigation costs. Stop with the lawsuits! Really people. Class-action lawsuits only benefit the lawyers. They ask an astronomical amount, a large chunk of the settlement goes to the attorneys, and remainder is split among the plaintiffs. No one wins except the lawyer.
As someone who use to work as a warehouse worker at amazon.com i can tell you this is wrong. i worked as a picker and it was impossible for me to work before the start of shift. we had a start meeting everyday and they even waited for people to get there to begin. its not like i could just go out and start working. they don't make you clock in 7 minutes early. if i clocked out at 5:28 it would put me as 5:30 so i made two minutes. while i thought the work was to hard and would never go back i never felt they cheated me because i could do whatever i wanted in that 7 minutes like go have coffee, eat whatever. why does this yahoo think he should be paid. probably just a pissed out former employee that did not work out.
I too am a former Amazon associate, worked there for 7 years, and formeramznemployee is correct. Unless you are cleared by your manager to start shift early and they manually adjust your time in then the system will do it using the rounding method.
Of course we also had rules about clocking in or out no more than 3 minutes before the start or end of shift. Why you may ask? Because there were people who would come to work that 15 minutes early and clock in, go back to the break room and get paid for it. Time clock abuse. I know many people who did it until they started the 3 minute rule. The rounding thing is not unknown by the associates, and we all made sure we were not on the wrong side of the 7 minutes when it came time to punch out.
I also agree that it's just one pissed off employee. As a former associate I will have nothing to do with this class action suit because I never once felt I was being cheated either. I knew how things worked in regards to my job and my paycheck just as I should have since it was my responsibility ... you know, since it was my job and my income.
These lawyers must be really bad in math or logic. By the same token, doesn't an employee that clocks in late by 7 minutes and out early by 7 minutes actually gains 14 minutes of work that they didn't earned due to the same rounding system they are suiting for? Do he think employees are not smart enough to make sure they are in the right side of the rounding? Instead of clocking out 7 minutes late, I will wait another minute to clocked out 8 minutes so it rounds up instead of down, is that really that difficult to figure out? I don't know about you, but if there is no rounding system, I imagine they will have to spend more on payroll system and personnel... 1 week you are getting 39.89 hours, the next 40.02 + 0.02 OT? That's insanity!
I am an Amazon employee right now. It does not bother me to clock in 7 minutes early or out 3 minutes late. At least they do give you 3 minutes after start time to clock in without being docked. I do however dislike how lunch is done. You must work up until 12:30 then you can clock out. Normally it takes about 3 minutes thus clocking out at 12:33 for lunch. You then must be back at the stand up meeting by 1:00, meaning you must clock in by about 12:57. Therefore you are losing 6 minutes on your lunch everyday and not getting paid for it. You get a 24 minute lunch and get counted for 30. I myself would like to have a full thirty minute lunch.