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Freelancer for Google Play alleges he was denied overtime pay

On Behalf of | Nov 18, 2014 | Wage & Hour Laws |

Everyone wants to be paid for the work that they do and to be compensated appropriately for that work. Unfortunately, many employees in Texas, and elsewhere, are improperly classified as independent contractors. These classification errors can lead to people not receiving overtime pay, as well as being denied all of the other associated benefits of being classified as an employee.

A man who worked for Google’s Google Play division is claiming that he should have been classified as an employee instead of as an independent contractor. When he started working for the company, he alleges that he was to be paid $35 per hour as a freelancer even though he worked from one of Google’s offices. His compensation was provided to him through an outside agency.

According to his contract, the plaintiff was only allowed to bill the company for 30 hours per week. He contends that he worked longer hours, but was not paid for any of them. He was also denied overtime pay when he worked more than 40 hours. To alleviate the problem, the plaintiff alleges that he requested that his contract be altered to include more hours, but Google would not comply. Ultimately, the contract was cancelled.

The plaintiff is claiming that Google was not in compliance with federal labor laws. The case is seeking to become a collective action so that it can include other Google workers in similar situations. Texas workers who have been denied overtime pay can first bring the discrepancy to human resources’ attention to have the error remedied. If a solution is not found, the employee may choose to go forward with pursuing legal action. In a successful case, the claimant may be awarded unpaid wages, as well as any other financial losses recognized under applicable laws.

Source: Reuters, “Google contractor accuses company of pay, overtime violations in lawsuit”, Dan Levine, Nov. 13, 2014

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