A Masonite employee is taking the company to court in Mississippi over claims that it failed to accurately record time, and properly pay non-exempt hourly and salaried employees following a service outage to timekeeping and payroll systems in December 2021.

According to documents filed by the Plaintiff, on or about Dec. 11, 2021, Masonite’s timekeeping and payroll software and hardware suffered a disruption in service resulting from a ransomware attack. The complaint alleges that the outage interfered with the company’s ability to track hours and pay employees, and that Masonite “failed to keep accurate track of the hours …”

The plaintiff alleges that Masonite used “various methods” to estimate hours worked, none of which amounted to accurate accounts of hours worked.

“Instead of accurately tracking hours and paying employees their overtime, Masonite decided to arbitrarily pay these employees, without regard to the overtime hours they worked or the regular rates at which they were supposed to be paid,” the complaint continues.

The complaint also alleges that Masonite pushed the effects of the outage onto its “most economically vulnerable workers.”

“As a result of Masonite’s failure to accurately track their actual hours worked each week, employees who were non-exempt and worked overtime were in many cases paid less than the hours they worked in the workweek, including overtime hours,” the complaint alleges. “Many employees were not even paid for all their non-overtime wages for hours worked in certain workweeks.”

Masonite’s alleged failure to pay the overtime wages is a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), according to the filed complaint. With respect to relief, the plaintiff asks for an order certifying a collective action for the FLSA claims as well as an order finding Masonite liable for violations of federal wage laws.

The plaintiff, on behalf of themselves as well as similarly-situated employees, has requested a judgment awarding them all unpaid wages and liquidated damages. The latter request comes with the argument that the company’s decision not to pay overtime was not made in good faith.

The plaintiff also wants a trial by jury.