Maximus Corporation: Unpaid Overtime Violations and Wrongful Dismissal Charges

San Diego, CABlanco Alonzo estimates that Maximus Corporation owes him and several co-workers well over $10,000 for unpaid overtime. "At first they paid us overtime but then denied us, saying it wasn't within their budget," says Alonzo. Is a class action lawsuit within their budget?

Alonzo was hired by Maximus as an employment case manager (technically a social worker) in July, 2005. He successfully met the requirements of his job and this was reflected in his bonuses. He also had the highest case load—300 families on a monthly basis, which translated to 300 'billing packets' that were sent to the County of San Diego. "Maximus was sub-contracting work from the County of San Diego both to individuals and to group projects within the company," explains Alonzo. And he has proof of his stellar performance: "San Diego County has records to demonstrate that under Maximus standards, I was the number one producer in performance and production and received bonuses monthly," says Alonzo. So why was he fired?

"We were always pressured to perform and produce and felt obligated to work over 40 hours a week," says Alonzo. Allegedly, Maximus also hired people from staffing agencies--inexperienced workers but paid the same rate as salaried regular employees--when Maximus' staff couldn't meet the company's increasingly difficult expectations. "We felt that if we didn't work overtime, we would get fired."

Alonzo says that from July 2006 up until he was fired, "We worked about 50-60 hours a week. We were on salary but the extra hours were supposed to be paid in overtime but we never saw it." However, the Maximus database must show times logged in and out and every employee also had billing packets on San Diego County file--a requirement from the county.

Alonzo was chosen as spokesperson to represent 12 co-workers (the others were afraid of losing their jobs) and complain about several violations, including retaliation, unpaid overtime, conflict of interest, favoritism and not paying bonuses on time.

"The same day I called the ethics line to complain, I received a bonus," says Alonzo. "I left a detailed message and indicated all the violations as above. I called them three times but didn't get a call back until January 9th." Two days later, Alonzo was placed on administrative leave to investigate what was going on and on January 24th he was fired. Maximus' reasoning was that he didn't meet their expectations. But Maximus must have 18 months of his performance on file.

"Other co-workers were treated the same as me," says Alonzo. "Since I was fired, a few were forced to quit and four or five more were fired after me. I have a list of 15 people that are willing to testify they are also owed overtime, bonuses, holiday pay and administrative leave." Of those 15 people, ten are still working at Maximus. "We have limited communication because they are afraid of losing their jobs," he adds.

"After I was fired, I tried to talk to HR and asked for my service records but they said there was nothing to say. Next, I called the Department of Labor and their advice was to contact a lawyer."