CWA Complaint Leads to Raise and Back Pay for Customer Service Representatives From Federal Contractor

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 -- The Communications Workers of America issued the following news release:

With assistance from CWA, 40 current and former employees will receive a raise and back pay from a Lionel Henderson call center in Hyattsville, Md., which serves as a FEMA National Flood Insurance Program subcontractor. Latoya Williams, a former Lionel Henderson employee who raised concerns about her pay to CWA and to the press, will receive $1,296.70.

Williams was glad to have had the opportunity to stand for something very important not just for herself, but also for her coworkers and those who will come after. "It was one of the best feelings knowing I stood up for us to be treated fairly. I might have given up if I didn't know that CWA had my back, and that meant so much to me."

Since 2016, CWA has filed two complaints with the U.S. Department of Labor alleging that Lionel Henderson violated the Service Contract Act, a federal prevailing wage law that applies to CSRs and other workers who provide services to the federal government. The Department found that Lionel Henderson misclassified these CSRs to pay them less and, between its two investigations, recovered over $100,000 in back pay for the workers. The company has also agreed to reclassify its employees going forward.