Employee Abuse?


A new lawsuit alleges that Aflac (of the famous duck) takes advantage of and abuses its employees in a myriad of ways.  Among the claims:

  • fraudulently promising recruits six-figure incomes which are essentially unattainable
  • using a multi-level marketing scheme to encourage employees to sell policies to friends and relatives and recruit them into the company
  • improperly classifying employees as independent contractors, thus shifting business costs onto the employees and denying them compensation and benefits
  • wage theft; and
  • retaliation against whistleblowers
Unfortunately, this type of employee abuse is all too common.  Companies routinely call employees "independent contractors" so they don't have to pay unemployment or workers compensation benefits.  And wage theft is an epidemic -- the Economic Policy Institute has found that minimum wage violations alone cost over $8 Billion annually.

A court in Georgia has ordered that the case go to arbitration instead of court, which may limit the employees' ability to proceed as a class action.  Let's keep an eye on this.

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