Sprint settles suits over unpaid commissions by paying $34 million to 39,000 reps
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This month, the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas announced that it had approved two settlements made by Sprint (via Kansas City Business Journal) related to lawsuits over unpaid commissions. Both class action suits date from 2008, and claim that following its merger with Nextel, Sprint failed to pay its reps the proper commissions owed them under a prior agreement. Sprint employees say that the system used by the company was unable to credit them with the proper amount of commissions over a number of years.
"The settlement is the result of over ten years of hard work by many people and the dedication of our class representatives. We are happy the class will finally be paid early in the New Year."-Michele R. Fisher, attorney, Nichols Kaster, PLLP
Sprint executives never thought that they would have to settle this case. Internal documents that were filed to the court revealed that the company's executive charged with fixing the problem wrote that it would take "lawyers, guns, and money" for the employees to get the commissions they deserved.
It appears that Sprint is trying to get its legal house in order before its proposed merger with T-Mobile closes. Still awaiting FCC and FTC approval, the $26.5 billion deal was announced in April, and the companies hope to close on the deal sometime in the first half of next year.
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