Satellite TV Installers Owed Overtime Wages
Our law firm has recently filed suit on behalf of a former employee with Sky King Satellite, Inc alleging the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act in failing to pay overtime wages. From the date of March 2, 2015 until August 12, 2015, Gerald Joseph Cooper Jr., a Louisiana native, was employed by Sky King Satellite, Inc. Although Sky King Satellite is a company with its headquarters in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, Cooper worked for the company in southwest, Louisiana. Sky King is “a limited liability firm form and organized under Pennsylvania law” and may be better known for the company it provides installation and technical services to which is DirectTV.
Before his work began for the company, Cooper was trained and prepared for the job. Afterwards, during his five months of employment, Cooper worked as an installer and/or technician of satellite television services outside of Lafayette, Louisiana. The usual pay-rate for an employee of this company is 40 hours per week. Cooper came to average around 60-70 hours each week that he worked for Sky King; therefore, Cooper should have been receiving “one and one-half” times the regular rate of pay for working such long hours overtime. With Sky King, this was unfortunately not the case.
Throughout his employment, Gerald Cooper, we allege, was willfully and intentionally misclassified as an Independent Contractor by Sky King in an attempt to avoid paying Cooper overtime wages. Consequently, this means that Cooper and many other workers were not labeled as employees, and accurate time records of their labor were subsequently not maintained. On top of it all, sizeable deductions were continuously taken from these workers’ paychecks. Thus, the monies owed to these employees could be substantial.
Cooper has brought his action as a collective lawsuit on behalf of himself and his fellow misclassified employees. His suit request damages to include
- The unpaid overtime
- Liquidated damages or penalties
- Attorneys’ fees and cost associated with the litigation.
The matter is currently pending before the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
In the case of Cooper and many hard working men and women like him, the problem with this situation is that all of these employers’ actions plus more violate significant sections of the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act). Sky King and many employers like them knew of the detrimental actions they were performing by not paying their employees fairly. Regrettably, conditions similar to Cooper are taking place all around us more and more frequently. Violations of the FLSA should not be tolerated by anyone, including you.
For over 20 years, our firm has been representing individuals in cases such as this one. If you have questions about this case or your own situation, please call us for a free and confidential consultation for your overtime wage case.
