Feldman Legal Group and attorney Mitchell Feldman reached a settlement with Sage Software Inc. to settle the nationwide overtime wage claims of inside sales representatives, for the sum of $750,000. The company regularly expected the sales reps to reach sales quotas by working overtime hours without pay, and if they did not, they risked disciplinary action, including termination of their employment.
THE DETAILS OF THE SAGE SOFTWARE INSIDE SALES REP CASE
CASE: Torion Sellers, Renee Bell, and Keith Russell, individually and on behalf of all others similar situated v. Sage Software Inc., et al. Case No: 1:17-cv-03614 in the United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division.
Torion Sellers and Renee Bell worked as inside sales representatives for Sage in Atlanta, Georgia under the titles of Account Manager or Account Executive. They were treated by Sage as non-exempt, hourly employees (meaning entitled to overtime wages and non-exempt from the overtime laws).
The companies named in the case are Sage Software, Inc. (SSI) and Sage Payment Solutions, Inc. (SPS). In January of 2018, Sage rebranded its company and is now known as Paya, Inc.
Both Sellers and Bell routinely worked over 40 hours, but Sage did not pay overtime wages, despite knowledge that both and all other inside sales reps were working overtime hours. Both allege that Sage tracked their work hours through logging into the phone system. Yet, when they and all other inside sales reps worked overtime, Sage failed to pay them for the those added hours, which is contrary to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime laws.
Sellers and Bell either stayed late, came in early or worked through some or all their lunch or meal breaks causing them to work routinely over 40 hours. As the complaint alleges, the FLSA requires automatic payment of overtime wages when the employer has any knowledge or reason to know an employee worked over 40 hours. Any request by the employer to work over 40 hours without overtime pay is unnecessary and improper, especially where there is a culture of disciplinary action if any such employee were to seek to be paid for the overtime hours. The plaintiffs allege a de facto (unwritten) policy that inside sales reps were to work as many hours as necessary to hit quotas and production goals or they would lose their jobs.
Sage also violated the FLSA by not having a time tracking system for hourly non-exempt employees (the inside sales reps) to log in and out of for arrival, departure and breaks as required by the FLSA.
