Comcast Corporation is Hit with a Class Action Lawsuit for Worker Misclassification
Massachusetts - - Comcast has been sued by a former cable installer alleging he was misclassified as an independent contractor instead of a full-time employee and missed out on overtime, health insurance and other benefits.
A former cable installer filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, saying Comcast and TriWire Engineering Solutions Inc. (the company that contracted with Comcast to install cable) not only misclassified him as an IC, but then wrongfully terminated him because they discovered he had previously filed a lawsuit against another cable company for worker misclassification.
It’s complicated but it happens everyday
Before allegedly working for Comcast and TriWire, the plaintiff was allegedly hired by another cable installer RCN (who sells and installs optical fiber cable for internet and other applications) as an independent contractor. He was laid off and decided to file for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. He found out that IC’s are not eligible for UI benefits but ex-employees are. So he engages an attorney to file suit that he was misclassified as an independent contractor when he really should have been an employee. By this time several other cable installers joined in this suit, alleging they too were misclassified as independent contractors.
This type of lawsuit occurs everyday. You usually don’t hear of them because they are generally smaller companies that quietly settle before the case gets out of hand.
What began as a simple claim for unemployment insurance benefits has turned into an industry threatening movement.
So now Comcast Corporation and TriWire Engineering are being sued for misclassification of cable installers. The suit alleges he worked as a Comcast installer paid through Triwire from March until August then was fired after TriWire learned of his suit against his previous employer RCN. The suit alleges the two companies violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and Massachusetts’ independent contractor and overtime laws.
There are more than a few back paychecks at stake here.
- If the cable installers win these suits they could be entitled to a huge actual and punitive damages settlement.
- Plus this could focus the current federal and state compliance spotlight on the whole fiber optic and cable industry, nationwide.
- In my experience this is how sweeping compliance initiatives begin, a single UI claim that gets out of control.
- It could be just a matter of time before other cable companies, along with their subcontracting venders, will be facing similar civil suits plus the unwanted attention by the IRS, U. S. Department of Labor and numerous state enforcement agencies.
If I were a cable company I’d be getting my IC Cable Installer House in order now. I wouldn’t wait for the knock on the door.
Walter,
Glad to see someone else is following current legal developments in this field beyond the IRS and DOL enforcement initiatives.
As a Massachusetts lawyer and expert in this field, may I ask why you did not include the fact that violators of the Massachusetts’ Independent Contractor Law are subject to both criminal and civil penalties, with criteria for proving independent contractor status that are more stringent than the IRS worker status test. (There is a strong bias and presumption that a worker is an employee, not a contractor).
I agree. Between Massachusetts, New York and California it’s difficult to decide which state is the toughest on employers for misclassifying workers. Massachusetts has one of the toughest IC versus employee standards in the nation, with the fines and penalties to match. In the past I have noted several Massachusetts cases that pushed the limits beyond anything else I’d seen to that point. Here are just a couple examples. I know there are many more. For example:
In Massachusetts strippers are employees! A Massachusetts the judge ruled strippers were deprived of wages and tips and inappropriately charged for expenses. The judge found that King Arthur’s Lounge:
• Did not pay the strippers any salaries,
• Required each to pay $35 to perform each night,
• Kept $10 of every $30 made for “private dancing’’ in secluded booths.
The judge ruled the lounge was charging the employees to work there and imposed severe penalties!
Even though you earn more as an IC than you would as an employee, in Massachusetts you can still sue for overtime.
Massachusetts—The State Supreme Judicial Court recently issued a ruling that increases the amount of damages a worker can receive if he or she has been misclassified as an independent contractor, even though he was paid at a higher rate than he would have gotten as an employee, (Somers v. Converged Access, No. SJC-10347, Aug. 21, 2009) The final decision held the engineer was an employee entitled to all the benefits an employee should receive in addition to his higher IC pay rate.