Apple Accused of Misclassifying Home-Based Call Center Agents to Dodge Paying Taxes - Customer Inter@ction Solutions

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»Free Premium Content Customer Inter@ction Solutions: 12/19/2011 eNewsletter

Featured Articles » Eliminate Holiday Exhaustion with Ergonomic Call Center Furniture » Release of Oracle's Siebel CRM Public Sector 8.2.2 Shows Commitment to Government Customers » Acqueon Improves Agility for Contact Centers   Sponsored By: SimplyCT simplyCT.com is a Cloud based Virtual Contact Center platform; Our innovative end-to-end online application enables businesses to launch an out-of-the-box cost effective solution designed to meet changing business needs. simplyCT.com enhances the customer experience through highly effective multi-communication channels servicing inbound, outbound and blended queues. By signing up with simplyCT.com, businesses benefit from ease of access and cost reductions afforded by running a 100% cloud based contact center.   Top Stories » ShoreTel Extends Virtualization Support to Enterprise Contact Center » Communications Provider PowerNet Global Adds Inbound SIP DIDs to Call Center Offering » Call Center Training Designed to Improve Profitability While Keeping Customers Happy   From The Expert Corner December 16, 2011 Apple Accused of Misclassifying Home-Based Call Center Agents to Dodge Paying Taxes By Tracey E. Schelmetic TMCnet Contributor While Apple (News - Alert) has a number of legal battles on the patent front on its hands, it will soon have its hands full with another legal woe unrelated to patents. This time it's Apple's own home-based “virtual” call center agents causing the headaches. A news release on PRWeb is reporting that the employment law firm Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple on behalf of Apple's “virtual” contact center employees. The suit alleges that Apple put together an illegal scheme of classifying these at-home call center workers not as employees but as independent contractors. The goal, the suit alleges, was to dodge having to paying payroll taxes and other business related expenses for the employees through the use of what's called a “yellow dog” contract. The suit, Hilton v. Apple, was filed on December 8 is currently pending in Santa Clara Superior Court as Case No. 111-CV-214597. A “yellow dog” contract is an umbrella term to describe a legal document that represents an agreement between an employer and an employee in which the employee agrees, as a condition of employment, not to be a member of a labor union. (These contracts have been illegal since 1932.) The term may also be used to describe an employment contract that contains non-compete clauses or non-disclosure agreements. It's not clear under what definition of the concept the Hilton v. Apple allegations fall... Read More   Featured Video Interview with Telco Systems   Featured Channels » Call Center Furniture » Call Center Certification » Call Center Wallboards   Webinars Download One of Our Webinars Today to learn about new opportunities to enhance your business. http://www.tmcnet.com/webinar/   Contact Us   Company Directory    |    All Editors' Info   Become a TMCnet Columnist! Become a TMCnet columnist! Want to contribute your expertise to a growing audience of technology professionals? Become a writer, blogger or columnist for the TMCnet Web site and this newsletter. Contact TMCnet Group Editorial Director, Erik Linask, at elinask@tmcnet.com for details.

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