Las Vegas telemarketer pushes for court to dismiss lawsuit

About 1,500 former employees of a Las Vegas telemarketing company are on the sidelines of a legal waiting game, hoping to receive backpay for their time working at Wellfleet Communications.

The U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against Wellfleet Communications Oct. 7 in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, accusing the company of failing to pay minimum wage and overtime to the workers, as well as illegally misclassifying employees as independent contractors.

The Labor Department alleges that Wellfleet Communications employees routinely received less than the $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage. While an employee working 32 hours in a week should receive at least the minimum wage of $232 for their work, Wellfleet employees routinely received less than half that amount, and there were instances of employees receiving $50 or as little as $3 for an entire week of work, the agency claimed.

Wellfleet filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit Jan. 3, as well as a request for the court to rule that the Labor Department has no case.

Allen Roach, general manager of Wellfleet Communications, said in court documents that “WFC (Wellfleet Communications) paid Direct Sellers for their sales, never for their time…The Direct Sellers received a 1099 at the end of the calendar year which reflected their ‘Nonemployee compensation.’ No Direct Seller ever contacted the business after receiving the 1099 and claimed he or she should have been classified as an employee.”

Laura Bremer, a senior trial attorney with the Department of Labor, said the agency’s response is due to the court Jan. 24. She said she plans to oppose the motion to dismiss the suit.

“They’re trying to get rid of the case however they can,” Bremer said.

An attorney representing Wellfleet declined a request for comment.

Contact Nicole Raz at nraz@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @JournalistNikki on Twitter.