Consolidated Communications has been hit with a proposed collective and class action lawsuit alleging that the telecommunications giant does not give overtime pay to its technicians in Vermont and two other northern New England states in violation of state and federal laws.
David Russell and John Orton III, two former Consolidated Communications technicians who worked for the company in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, made the allegations in a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Burlington.
Consolidated Communications provides internet and telephone service to households and businesses throughout Vermont and across the U.S., often operating under the brand name Fidium Fiber.
The company offers high-speed broadband internet access for over 130,000 Vermonters and is the state’s largest landline telecommunications provider.
According to the complaint, the company primarily pays its technicians on a “piece-rate” basis, meaning they are given a flat rate per specific task they complete, such as home internet setups and fiber optic cable installations. Technicians can also earn an hourly wage for certain repair work they complete.
But even though technicians typically work at least 65 hours a week, the complaint claims, those flat and hourly rates are set “without accounting for overtime compensation at all” and do not go up once employees exceed a traditional 40-hour workweek.
For the company’s wage practices in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, the lawsuit accuses the Consolidated Communications of violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the Vermont Employment Practices Act and the New Hampshire and Maine wage laws, all of which require employers to pay overtime wages at a rate of at least 1.5 times an employee’s regular wage.
While working with Consolidated Communications, the lawsuit claims, Russell and Orton earned no overtime wages despite working for 65 and 70 hours a week on average, respectively. The two men worked for Consolidated at various points between 2020 and 2024, a time period during which the company invested heavily to extend its fiber optic network in Vermont.
The lawsuit identifies one week in May 2023 in which Orton worked nearly 75 hours without any corresponding increase in his pay rate. Calculating Orton’s average wage for the pay period, the complaint claims that, based on the overtime rate required by federal and state law, the technician should have been given over $4,800 in overtime for that week alone.
“Hard-working Technicians provide critical telecommunications services to Defendants’ customers throughout the Northeast. Yet, these Defendants have failed to pay them their earned overtime wages,” Stephen Ellis, a Burlington-based lawyer representing Russell and Orton, wrote in a statement. “No one should be denied their earned wages and we look forward to holding these Defendants accountable in court.”
A spokesperson for Consolidated Communications said the company could not comment on the ongoing lawsuit.
State and federal laws exempt certain categories of employees from overtime pay requirements, including some administrative roles and salespeople who earn commissions, as well as outside contractors.
One question that the courts will likely have to tackle is whether technicians working for Consolidated Communications could theoretically fall under such an exemption.
According to the complaint, Russell and Orton, as well as many other northern New England technicians for Consolidated Communications, were hired through a company called Conexa Technologies, which is named as a co-defendant.
“Together,” the complaint says, “Defendants supervise and control all aspects of their employment of Technicians.”
The complaint asks the court to allow the lawsuit to move forward as both a class action and collective action case, meaning that other technicians employed by the company in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine could join the suit and collectively seek damages.
The lawsuit also asks the court to require Consolidated Communications to change its overtime wage policy and to give all technicians involved in the case their owed overtime wages plus interest.
According to the complaint, about 500 technicians could feasibly join the suit, potentially putting Consolidated Communications and Conexa on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
