Four employees of Randstad Staffing, which has offices in Troy and Livonia, have filed a complaint alleging that the employment services company misclassifies workers in order to avoid paying overtime. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division in downtown Detroit.
Per the complaint, Randstad classifies employees as managers, supervisors, or executives — positions that under federal labor laws are not due overtime compensation — and then require them to work 50 to 60 hours a week.
The employees seek to recover overtime based on a time-and-a-half calculation earned, beginning three years before the lawsuit was filed.
The employees represented in the complaint claim that Randstad labels employees with titles such as talent acquisition specialist, account manager, and senior staffing consultant, even as they perform essentially the same function of recruiting corporate customers.
“It’s our view that these job descriptions are all basically the same,” says Jordan Lewis, senior litigator with the Florida law firm of Kelley/Uustal, which is working with Dib and Fagan of Royal Oak on the lawsuit. The complaint seeks to have the case be recognized as a collective action.
“It would be a small surprise if this sounds familiar to others who’ve worked for the company,” says co-counsel attorney Barry Fagan. “If people feel these allegations are correct and apply to them, then they should contact us.”
Lewis says the jobs are highly regulated and require employees to meet a list of job duties on a weekly basis to receive their full salary. “These workers don’t seem to us to have the independence and discretion that a manager or an executive typically has. Their job duties are carefully scripted and regulated by Randstad,” he says.
Lesly Cardec, a spokeswoman for Randstad, says the company “will not comment on this pending litigation, except to state that we adamantly deny the allegation and will vigorously defend our interest in court.”
