Collections calls for employees

swynia

Does anybody else have this problem????? A collections agent calls to talk with an employee, we've asked them to stop calling as this is a place of buisness.

I've advised the manager to have a conversation with the ee about dealing with the issue and having them only call her at home.

Is there anything that can be said/done with the collections agent to get them to stop calling the office, as well?

Thanks for your input!

NeedCoffee

Unfortunately, not really. We went through this about a year ago. The employee has to call the collection agency and state that they are not to call them at work. After that, if you've asked them to stop, then they call again, ask to speak with a supervisor.

System

It's a violation of the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act for a collection agency to call the consumer at his place of employment if the collector "knows or has reason to know that the consumer's employer prohibits the consumer from receiving such communication."

I suggest that when you get a collections call, you tell the agent, using that language, that you "prohibit employees from receiving these kinds of communications at work" and that, if they call again, you will file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and/or your state attorney general's office (most states have debt collection laws as well). Hopefully that will be enough to stop them from calling and you won't actually have to file a complaint. If they call again, either you or the employee or both can file a complaint against the collector, and hopefully that will deter them from calling in the future.

You also could create a form letter to collectors that says, "Please be advised that this is a place of employment, and we prohibit employees from receiving communications regarding debt collections here. If you continue to contact our offices, we will have no choice but to file a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the Office of the Attorney General" and then send the letter to any collector who calls. That way there's no doubt that they "knew or had reason to know" that they shouldn't be calling. You'd just have to decide whether it's more of a nuisance to send the letters or to answer the collections calls. Depends on how many calls you're getting, I suppose.

Good luck!

Kimberly A. Klimczuk, Esq.

SKOLER, ABBOTT & PRESSER, P.C.
Editors of the Massachusetts Employment Law Letter
(413) 737-4753 Email: [email]kklimczuk@skoler-abbott.com[/email]

This message is not intended as legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship.

stilldazed

We've had success with KimberlyK's advice. I have issued some requests in writing, and some I've made verbally to the caller. As far as receiving the calls, our central communications center defers all calls to employees that come in on main lines to my department, and we simply advise that in the absence of an emergency, we can only transfer messages and cannot guarantee a call back, as well as the message that our policies are to restrict incoming calls to our workers while they are working.