Charter Communications failed to pay employees rightfully owed wages and overtime pay following a hack of their workforce management company Kronos in 2021. The hack affected Charter’s payroll and timekeeping systems, according to a proposed class and collective action filed in New York Federal court this week.
Charter employee, Angel Hernandez, claims that the company commonly referred to as Spectrum, failed to implement a system that would accurately record employees’ time and used paychecks issued before the Kronos hack as estimates that resulted in unpaid wages and overtime, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York law.
"Charter pushed the effects of the Kronos hack onto the backs of its most economically vulnerable workers, making sure that it kept the money it owed to those employees in its own pockets, rather than take steps to make sure its employees were paid on time and in full," Hernandez said.
Hernandez, a New York resident, said she has been working for Charter since February 2021. In December, a ransomware attack hacked Kronos, sending employers into panic and compromising their ability to track employees' hours and vacation time.
Since then, Charter paid nonexempt hourly workers based on the hours they were scheduled to work or based on previous paychecks, instead of how many hours they actually worked, failing to pay them time and a half their regular rate of pay for their overtime, Hernandez said.
Hernandez said she is "one of thousands" of workers who have been affected by Charter's failure to implement a system that would accurately record employees' time.
Hernandez seeks to represent a collective under the FLSA of all current and former nonexempt employees that Charter, including its subsidiaries and alter egos, hired in the U.S. at any time since the onset of the Kronos ransomware attack, on or about Dec. 11 to the present.
She also seeks to represent a class under New York law of all current and former nonexempt employees that Charter, including its subsidiaries and alter egos, hired in New York at any time on the same dates.
Through the proposed class and collective action, Hernandez aims at recovering unpaid wages, liquidated damages and attorney fees and costs.
Matthew S. Parmet of Parmet PC, who is representing Hernandez, says he is looking forward to making sure Charter workers are fully paid for all their work.
"Charter Communications' hardworking employees rely on the timely and accurate payment of their wages so they can support their families and put food on the table," Parmet said.