Information for Your Comcast Listens or Comcast Solutions Filing
Did you have a bad (or good) experience reporting through the Comcast Listens Program? Did you give up on a Comcast Solutions claim because they delayed the process for years? Were you forced to quit or retaliated against in some other way because you came forward?
Others would love to read about them here. Share your story below by commenting on this post.
*Comments are the opinions of the respective authors and may be fact or fictitious.
Does age discrimination take place at Comcast? Comcast is able to hide most of their age discrimination, sexual discrimination and other employment law violations as they never make it to court. Comcast forces it’s employees to use arbitration, with the results never becoming public.
There are examples of people alleging Comcast employment law violations all over the internet, as in this question posted to the Avvo “Ask a legal Question” area of their site. The question starts with…
My supervisor said in a meeting why should I pay you older guys what I am paying you when I can hire younger guys at half the pay, I was shocked to hear that, one of the other guys were upset by it and complained to his boss but got nowhere, he was even threatened to be put on another worse shift if he did not like it…
If you have any legal questions about your Employment Law Violations at Comcast, Avvo.com is a great place to ask them. Click to read the rest of the question and go to Avvo now…
When you went to work for Comcast, they forced you to give up a bunch of your legal rights. Whether you were aware at the time or not, your offer letter or employment agreement referenced how you would be bound to use the Comcast Solutions program if you are wronged by Comcast. You also agreed to NOT file a class action lawsuit. You gave up your right to use the court system to get your issue heard, and now you will be need to use the Comcast Listens and Comcast Solutions programs which FORCE arbitration.
This is beneficial for Comcast and not great for you. First, Comcast gets to keep their bad behavior private and out of the court system as the details of all the Comcast arbitration suits NEVER become public.
So does Comcast’s bad behavior create a lot of Comcast Listens and Solutions cases? In 2014 over 3000 employees used the Comcast Listens program as reported by EthicsPoint, the company that administers the Comcast Listens program. Click for the Document proof. That’s a LOT of bad and illegal behavior that the public never hears about.
Well can’t you just share the details with the world after you are wronged? Well NO. As part of the settlement, you will be gagged. All those thousands of people who had legal claims against Comcast settled in arbitration can’t talk about it. So does Comcast continue to do the same illegal acts even after losing in arbitration? We can’t know for sure, but these sort of forced secret out-of-court settlements have led to protecting the offenders and encouraging continued illegal activity in many other cases (as in the recent Bill O’Reilly sexual harrassment scandal where over the years Fox News aid $13 million to women who have accused Bill O’Reilly of harassment in the workplace, or the Catholic church global crisis where there was extensive covering up of incidents of sexual misconduct in the Church) Is the same thing going on here? You can be the judge on that question.
But can’t you get out of the arbitration provision and your case heard by the court? Probably not. In this court brief below, an ex-Comcast employee named Robert Smith tried to get the courts to hear his 5 count case heard by the courts. He alleged: age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (Count 1), age discrimination under the Florida Civil Rights Act (Count 2), disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (Count 3), handicap discrimination under the Florida Civil Rights Act (Count 4), and violation of the Family Medical Leave Act (Count 5). Here’s the Article
The court ruled in favor of Comcast and forced arbitration.
The second reason why Comcast arbitration is bad for you: The damages you get will most likely be less than what you could have received in a court or jury judgement. Why? This is a dirty little secret that few lawyers are willing to talk or write about publicly. Your arbitration case will be heard by a retired judge or other professional mediation legal professional. There are a limited number of ex-judges who hear arbitration cases and they can hear hundreds or thousands of cases over the years. You on the other hand will probably only use an arbitration judge once. What does that mean. Comcast has the final say as to whether they work with an arbitration judge. Will the judge who hears your case will be fair and impartial? You can hope they will, but in reality you’ll never know whether you would have gotten a better result in a court trial. There IS a likelihood that IF you prevail, the award you get won’t be as large as you’d get in court. Why? The judge hearing your case knows that if they award You, the plaintiff, a big judgement, they will NEVER again be selected by Comcast to hear any more Comcast arbitration cases. Can this element be removed as a potentially influencing factor? No.
So what can you do? Make the best of your bad situation by subscribing to the Listens Solutions Guide email to get more valuable tips such as..
– maximizing your settlement payout
– avoiding the delays that Comcast will put you through
– how to document your claim issue prior to quitting
– tips for finding the best employment attorney
– more ways to get funding if you need it to pay for your fight
Subscribe at www.ListensSolutionsGuide.com on the pop-up that appears or by requesting through our contact form.
Wishing Justice for All – Your Advocates at the Listens Solutions Guide
In the article by http://www.fiercetelecom.com African-American employees alleged a hostile work environment. The article opens with …
In the case, Plaintiffs alleged that Comcast created a hostile work environment by referring to African-American employees in a racially derogatory manner, forcing 112th Street employees to work in a substandard facility, and denying 112th Street employees the same quality of equipment and tools afforded to Comcast facilities that do not have majority African-American employees. Plaintiffs also claimed that the company did not adequately respond to repeated complaints by African-American employees about the workplace…
Here’s a funny one… This article from techdirt.com says that Comcast got a guy fired from his job (not at Comcast) for complaining to COMCAST. Now the guy is suing for disclosing his private information to his employer which is against the law. Way to go Comcast…
Guy Comcast Got Fired Now Suing Comcast For Violating Federal Privacy Law
from the karma’s-a-bitch deptIn the most recent example we covered of Comcast’s ongoing efforts to convince everyone not to be Comcast customers, we noted that the fact they helped get a customer fired from his accounting job was the kind of thing he could probably sue over. That said, even I didn’t anticipate the guy accusing Comcast of violating federal law.
The plaintiff, Conal O’Rourke, claims that after a series of calls with Comcast’s customer service department, Comcast complained to his employer about him and he was fired from his job. The lawsuit filed yesterday is based on the same alleged series of events. Mr. O’Rourke claims that he did not authorize Comcast to disclose his information to anyone else, but Comcast nevertheless disclosed personally identifying information about Mr. O’Rourke, including his name, to PricewaterhouseCoopers, where Mr. O’Rourke worked. The following can be attributed to Laura Moy, staff attorney at Public Knowledge:“If the facts in this complaint are true, they are extremely troubling. They would show that the nation’s largest cable provider exercised a complete disregard for federal privacy law.”
Here’s a class action lawsuit against Comcast that is alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and state labor codes.
The complaint accuses Comcast of intentionally misclassifying its workers as independent subcontractors instead of employees in order to avoid paying them overtime as a way to enhance the company’s profits and minimize its manual labor costs. Hmmm…not cool
Law360, New York (August 29, 2008, 12:00 AM EDT) — Cable technicians for telecommunications giant Comcast Corp. have filed a putative class action against their employer, alleging that the company misclassified them as independent workers in order to avoid paying them overtime wages and claiming that such labor law violations have run rampant on the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina.
The suit was filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on behalf of a potential national class and state classes for Maryland and New Mexico, alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and state labor codes.The complaint accuses Comcast of intentionally misclassifying its workers as independent subcontractors instead of employees in order to avoid paying them overtime as a way to enhance the company’s profits and minimize its manual labor costs.
Plaintiffs routinely work over 10 hours a day, seven days per week, and are not properly compensated for the extra hours, the suit alleges….
Every company has it’s bad employees. Some companies more than others. We hope that this one is no longer at Comcast.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/comcast-identifies-customer-as-asshole-on-bill-apologizes/
Is Comcast Evil? That’s the kind of statement you can find in hundreds of places on the web. Washington State Attorney General alleges a pattern of illegally deceiving their customers, and is going after Comcast for more than $100 million. Let’s work together to force giant wealthy corporations and company management seeking only profits to follow the law.
HomeNewsNews ReleasesAG announces lawsuit against Comcast for more than $100 million
AG ANNOUNCES LAWSUIT AGAINST COMCAST FOR MORE THAN $100 MILLION Printer-friendly versionFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Aug 1 2016
First-of-its-kind suit alleges nearly 2 million Consumer Protection Act violations; seeks refunds for more than 400,000 WashingtoniansSEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit today against cable television and Internet giant Comcast Corporation in King County Superior Court, alleging the company’s own documents reveal a pattern of illegally deceiving their customers to pad their bottom line by tens of millions of dollars.
The lawsuit accuses the company of more than 1.8 million violations of Washington state’s Consumer Protection Act (CPA), including misrepresenting the scope of its Service Protection Plan, charging customers improper service call fees and improper credit screening practices.
The lawsuit also accuses Comcast of violating the CPA to all of its nearly 1.2 million Washington subscribers due to its deceptive “Comcast Guarantee.”
The lawsuit is the first of its kind in the nation — though the Service Protection Plan is a nationwide program and many of the improper practices are used in all of Comcast’s markets. The Attorney General’s Office brought these issues to Comcast over a year ago, but the company didn’t begin to make changes until recently — on the verge of this litigation.
“This case is a classic example of a big corporation deceiving its customers for financial gain,” Ferguson said. “I won’t allow Comcast to continue to put profits above customers — and the law.” …
Continued on the Washington State Office of the Attorney General Website
