Kirby Hoovered Its Own Salespeople, Lawsuit Charges

The Kirby "high end" vacuum cleaner company, through its Connecticut distributor, promised desperate workers sales jobs at $500 to $800 a week, then paid them as little as 40 cents an hour for 70-hour weeks, eight workers say in a federal class action.

“Plaintiffs worked without proper compensation and offered up their own family and friends as sales prospects,” the suit alleges. “Defendants led Plaintiffs to believe that promised paychecks, bonuses, and prizes were around the corner. But as Defendants knew all along, nothing was around the corner.”

The plaintiffs say they “held on until they were either broke or figured the business for a scam.”

The former sales recruits, who had answered help-wanted ads for “mangement trainees,” say they were required to attend frequent, sometimes daily, sales meetings where they “playacted a scripted product promotion designed to induce homeowners to buy” but were not compensated for their time.

Some of the agents – who were called “independent dealers” – worked doing in-home presentations while others worked the telephone trying to set up appointments for sales people in the field.

Vague promises

The plaintiffs say that in job interviews, Kirby executives were vague about what the job entailed and hired everyone who applied, usually on the spot, all while making promises they did not intend to keep.

“For example, they promised Independent Dealers compensation for performing 15 product demonstrations in a week, but foreclosed the possibility that Plaintiffs could reach that goal by scheduling too-few appointments. They promised Appointment Setters a bonus if they worked a certain number of full-time days in a row, but foreclosed the possibility that Plaintiffs could reach that goal by sending them home early on certain days,” the suit charges.

The plaintiffs say that although they were classified as independent contractors, they were in fact treated like employees, being required to attend training courses, to work certain hours, to report for work daily at the company's Orange, Conn., office and to charge only the prices set by the company.

“Intent on profiting even off workers who don’t stick around past the first week,” the company required new recruits to perform sales demonstrations for their friends and families, the suit says. “Defendants calculated that family members would buy things – especially very expensive things they don’t need – in order to help out their loved ones at a new job.”

The suit charges Kirby with violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay a minimum wage, failing to pay overtime, failing to pay terminated employees by the next business day, fraudulent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment.