A combination class action/collective action has been filed in Ohio against the telemarketing service, Smart Choice Marketing, Inc. The action is brought on behalf of all Ohio residents who are currently, or were employed by Smart Choice from December 1, 2000, to the present as hourly telemarketers and whose working time was tracked and recorded by the use of the computer dialer and who were not paid overtime compensation as a result. The action alleges that Smart Choice engaged in an intentional and systematic course of conduct which was aimed at denying its hourly employees proper overtime compensation. The action is brought as a class action under Ohio Minimum Fair Wage Standards Law and as a collective action under the federal Fair Labor Standards Law. The employees are seeking back pay, liquidated and statutory damages as well as injunctive and declaratory relief. As a collective action, potential claimants are required to "opt-in" to the case. The employees have requested that the court issue notice to all potential claimants.

Smart Choice is an Ohio telemarketing company that offers home equity loans to consumers. The employees who bring this action allege that Smart Choice tracks their hours in two ways, first through the use of a standard time clock, and second through the use of their computer workstations which tracks the amount of time they are before their computer and logged in. According to the employees, Smart Choice uses the information provided by the computer to calculate hours worked. The employees allege that only time in which they are at their workstation and logged into their computers is credited as time worked. The employees claim that they are required to log off every time they leave their workstation and that as a result, they often have to work as much as ten hours a day to be credited with an eight hour day. According to the employees, they are entitled to pay for all hours worked, not just the hours they are logged in to the computer. They allege that Smart Choice refuses to credit them for hours recorded by the traditional time clock and that as a result Smart Choice
has violated both Ohio labor laws and the Fair Labor Standards Act which both require pay at the rate of time and a half for all hours worked beyond 40 weekly.