|
In a victory for call center employees represented by Hillary Schwab, Rachel Smit, and Brook Lane, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge ruled that SimpliSafe is required to pay its customer support representatives extra pay (time-and-a-half) for working on Sundays in its Boston call center.
SimpliSafe argued that it was not subject to the Sunday pay requirement because it was not a brick-and-mortar “store or shop” that stays open on Sunday “for the sale at retail of goods therein,” pursuant to the Sunday Pay Statute. Judge Davis of the Business Litigation Session of the Superior Court rejected that argument, ruling that:
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.
The decision recognizes the changing nature of retail work in the Commonwealth, as Rachel explained to Massachusetts Lawyers’ Weekly:
“Our clients were doing the same work that retail workers in brick-and-mortar stores routinely perform. 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.”