BLS judge: call center workers owed Sunday premium pay.

Byline: Pat Murphy

Customer service representatives at the call center of a company that sells internet-based home security systems were entitled to Sunday "premium pay" under state wage and hour law, a Superior Court judge in the Business Litigation Session has ruled.

The defendant employer, SimpliSafe, argued that it had no obligation to pay Sunday premium wages because the plaintiffs in the putative class action did not work in a "store or shop" that sold "goods" within the meaning of the Sunday pay statute, G.L.c. 136, 6.

[box type="shadow" align="alignright" width="325px"]Galloway v. SimpliSafe, Inc., et al., Lawyers Weekly No. 09-123-19 (16 pages)

THE ISSUE: Are customer service representatives working in the Boston call center of a company that sells internet-based home security systems entitled to Sunday premium pay under the Wage Act?

DECISION: Yes (Superior Court's BLS)

LAWYERS: Hillary Schwab, Brook S. Lane and Rachel Smit, of Fair Work, Boston (plaintiffs)

Kevin M. McGinty, H. Andrew Matzkin, Katharine O. Beattie, Brendan J. Lowd and Natalie C. Young, of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, Boston (defense)[/box]

But Judge Brian A. Davis rejected the notion that the statute applies only to employees working in traditional "brick-and-mortar" retail establishments.

"Nothing in the Sunday Pay Statute mandates that a 'store or shop' possess a 'storefront' or a 'physical space open to the general public' in order to be subject to its requirements, nor would it be logical in this technology-driven day and age to imply such a mandate," Davis wrote in denying the employer's motion for summary judgment and in granting the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment.

Expansive interpretation?

Plaintiffs' attorney Rachel Smit of Boston said in an email that her clients performed the type of work entitling them to premium pay as contemplated by the state law.

"Our clients were doing the same work that retail workers in brick-and-mortar stores routinely perform," Smit said. "Judge Davis properly interpreted the Sunday pay statute in light of its remedial purpose and recognized that the rights of retail workers do not change even though the internet and new technologies may change the ways in which they interact with customers."

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"Our clients were doing the same work that retail workers in brick-and-mortar stores routinely perform."

Rachel Smit, Boston

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Springfield employment attorney Jeffrey S. Morneau said he agreed...

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