The U.S. Department of Labor announced that it has reached an agreement with Cingular Wireless to pay 25,351 workers employed as customer service representatives $5.1 million in back wages as a result of alleged violations of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

"Cingular has agreed to pay back wages and to take positive steps to come into compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act," said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. "Their workers will receive more than $5 million in back wages and overtime pay and can now be assured that they will be paid for all hours worked."

An investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division at the Springfield, Ill. call center found that customer service representatives would begin work prior to the start of their scheduled shift and, on occasion, continued to work after their shift ended. Since the time worked off-the-clock was not recorded, the employees did not receive compensation for it. After Cingular was made aware of the alleged violations, it worked cooperatively with the department to come into compliance and compute the back wages at all of its call centers. Cingular has made no admission of liability in this case. The company also designed and implemented a comprehensive initiative involving employee training, time reporting and compliance review procedures throughout its call center operations to ensure continued compliance with the FLSA.

"Cingular worked closely with the department, and voluntarily resolved these difficult back wage issues," said Alfred B. Robinson, Jr., Acting Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division. "When employers like Cingular work cooperatively with the department, everyone benefits because we are able to recover wages for employees quickly and efficiently."

The FLSA requires employers to pay for all hours of work and to pay overtime at a rate of one and one-half times the employees' regular rate of pay for hours worked after 40 in a workweek. The law also requires employers to maintain accurate payroll records.