Workers sue for wages lost to boot-up time waster

Most PC users are often frustrated by the amount of time it takes to boot up Windows – and now some employees are demanding to be paid for the inconvenience.

A new series of lawsuits has been lodged against major US companies after staff claimed unpaid overtime for waiting for Windows Vista to boot up.

Workers are frustrated by the use of time-keeping systems, which do not activate until a user logs in – adding up to 15 minutes for a computer’s start up time, and preventing work from being started or completed.

Solo legal practitioner Mark Thierman has lodged the lawsuits, which claim employees are losing up to two hours of pay a week. He is representing employees of health insurer Cigna, UnitedHealth Group, and AT&T.

Thierman says the issue is affecting workers paid by the hour in areas such as call centres or retail.