Settlement

Here is a how one tech made a difference and an excellent example of how Cablevision's call center management treats us workers.

For many years, TSG's official policy was to have a tech take calls as soon as his shift starts. This ignores the fact it can take more than 10 minutes to log in and get all the needed programs started and logged in to.

As was indoctrinated in us during training, You are being paid to take calls. But Management screws us two ways. The call center is very, very crowded, and if your shift starts during "prime time", it is hard to find a seat. You have to wait for someone's shift to end. When your shift starts you have to sign in to the phone system, and since you aren't ready to take a call, you have to sign out. Eevery moment you are working is monitored, you have to put a reason why you have signed out, in this case "system issues" would be a good choice. These reasons are tracked and at the end of the month your supervisor will discuss your stats with you. The fact that you signed out to system issues is guaranteed to be brought up. This is yet another stat that Management will use against you at raise time.

But if you were lucky enough to find a seat before your shift, or start at a time when it is less crowded, you were expected to log in to your computer , start all your applications and log into them. All before your shift starts. That this was wrong was brought up numerous times. I myself brought it up in monthly meetings. Management didn't care and told us that's just the way it is.

Finally a tech was let go for only Management knows why and he did something about it he consulted a lawyer. It was obvious that Cablevision had broken labor laws. Obvious to everyone but Management. Or maybe they just didn't care.

A lawsuit was filed, it turned into a class action, and Cablevision folded like a cheap suit.

I got my settlement check today and thanks to Robert Wolfson, I'll be able to go to a couple of nice restaurants for dinner. Thanks, Rob for standing up for the little guy.

After the lawsuit was filed, Management finally smartened up and changed their policy. Now we have a whole 5 minutes to log in. Not really enough time for us but enough for Cablevision to avoid another lawsuit.

So what's the moral of the story? I guess it is that Cablevision engages in unethical and illegal business practices and only will change if forced do by the courts......