Call center must pay workers for mandatory prep time, court rules

A call center must pay its employees for the ten minutes it takes them to start up their systems and get logged in, and not only when they start making or receiving calls at 9 a.m. sharp. The court in The Hague made this ruling in a case brought by an employee against the call center Teleperformance in Zoetermeer. According to the employee, he had to start making calls at 9 a.m. every morning, which required him to actually show up to work earlier to get his systems online, and to log in where needed. The court ruled that Teleperformance must pay the man for his 10 minutes of preparation time, dating back from the start of his employment.