A former employee at
Foxconn Technology Group's Mount Pleasant complex is suing the Taiwan-based company and alleging it operated an unlawful compensation system that failed to pay hourly employees for the true amount of time that they worked.
A complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court's Eastern District of Wisconsin against FII USA Inc. – doing business as Foxconn -- states that former employee Scotty Allen has filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and other similarly situated Foxconn employees. Allen worked at Foxconn’s Mount Pleasant complex for three years as an assembly operator who was paid hourly.
The lawsuit alleges Foxconn failed to compensate hourly-paid workers for the hours they worked each work week, including overtime hours. The company allegedly “shaved time” from employees’ weekly timesheets and failed to include other forms of payment such as bonuses, shift differential, and other rewards, the complaint states.
“At this time, we are currently looking into the matter and have no comment regarding the allegation," Foxconn said in a Wednesday statement.
As part of their daily duties, hourly employees were expected to arrive at work and put on protective gear at the start of their shifts, the complaint states. Employees also needed to remove their protective gear at the end of their shifts. The lawsuit alleges that Foxconn altered employees’ timecards to not include the time it took to put on or remove their needed protective gear.
“If (Allen) arrived to work at (Foxconn) and ‘clocked in’ via (Foxconn’s) electronic timekeeping system at 3:25 p.m. for his 3:30 p.m. scheduled shift start time and immediately engaged in the types of compensable work as described herein, (Foxconn) did not compensate (Allen) for engaging in this work, instead rounding (Allen’s) start time for compensation purposes to his scheduled shift start time of 3:30 p.m. each workday,” reads the complaint.
The complaint states that Allen attempted to complain to his supervisor regarding the practice of changing his “clock in” and “clock out” times, but was fired 11 days after making his complaint.
“These practices resulted in (Allen) and the (collective group) being denied overtime compensation by (Foxconn) at the rate of one and one-half times their regular hourly rate of pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek,” reads the complaint.
The lawsuit seeks relief for unpaid compensation, damages, the cost of attorneys’ fees and any other relied the court may deem appropriate.
