Workplace Disruptions: What to Do When Debt Collectors Call Employees on the Job
by Contributor Sergei Lemberg
When your employees walk through the door, you rightfully expect to have their undivided attention. These days, the ubiquity of Facebook, Twitter, smartphones and apps can create a bevy of unwanted distractions.
Although workplace policies vary, the norm is to ask employees to refrain from engaging in personal tweeting, texting, and emailing during business hours. Many businesses also prohibit employees from receiving personal phone calls at work. Yet, some debt collection agencies are persistent in their attempts to contact consumers at their places of employment.
If this situation crops up in your business, it’s helpful to understand three things: your employee’s situation, the law regarding debt collection and workplace contact, and the course of action you can take to prevent further calls and distractions.
Your Employee’s Situation
When it comes to your employee, it’s important not to jump to conclusions. Your employee may not be willfully handling personal matters at work. Many times, debt collectors don’t heed requests to refrain from calling consumers at work. In other words, the debt collector, rather than the employee, may be at fault.
Alternately, the debt collector may be attempting to collect on a debt that isn’t the employee’s to pay. Some debt collectors contact relatives of a deceased person in an attempt to collect the decedent’s debt. Debt buyers sometimes have the sketchiest of information on a debtor, and confuse a consumer with a similar name to the debtor.
Debt Collection Law
Even if the employee does owe the debt in question, the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) specifically outlines prohibited practices regarding workplace contact. The law says that a debt collector can’t communicate with a consumer “at the consumer’s place of employment if the debt collector knows or has reason to know that the consumer’s employer prohibits the consumer from receiving such communication.” In practice, this means that if your employee tells the debt collection agency – verbally or in writing – that he or she isn’t allowed to take personal calls at work, the debt collector isn’t allowed to call.
Your Course of Action
If an employee is receiving calls on the job from debt collectors, there are a number of steps you can take:
1. Speak to the employee - Reiterate the company policy against handling personal business at work, and ask if he or she has informed the debt collection agency about this policy.
2. Speak to other employees - In a manner that doesn’t further embarrass the employee being contacted, instruct other employees not to engage in conversations with the debt collector and to refrain from providing the collector with the debtor’s personal or identifying information.
3. Send a cease and desist letter - Encourage the employee to write a cease and desist letter to the collection agency. The FDCPA says that once such a letter is received, the debt collector may no longer contact the consumer. In addition, determine the name of the collection agency and send a letter from your company demanding that the calls stop.
4. Contact the police - If the calls continue after sending a cease and desist letter, the debt collector calling your employee is likely a scam artist. The FBI and other government agencies have issued alerts about current scams involving contact information gathered through hacking payday loan and other sites.
In closing, be aware that a debt collection agency may contact you for the purpose of verifying or correcting information about an employee or former employee. According to the FDCPA, a debt collector may contact a third party for the purpose of obtaining location information – but cannot reveal that the consumer owes a debt. However, you are under no obligation to provide the debt collector with information, and the debt collector can only contact you once.
