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Sometimes, employees get into debt that they aren’t able to immediately pay off, and they may receive collection calls at work. Congress has anticipated this situation, and created the Debt Collection Practices Act.
Scope
Employees who find themselves in debt are impacted.
Regulatory citations
- None
Key definitions
- None
Summary of requirements
In particular, U.S.C. 1692(c), Communication in connection with debt collection , includes the following provision (bold added):
(a) Communication with the consumer generally Without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt —
(1) at any unusual time or place or a time or place known or which should be known to be inconvenient to the consumer. In the absence of knowledge of circumstances to the contrary, a debt collector shall assume that the convenient time for communicating with a consumer is after 8 o’clock antemeridian and before 9 o’clock postmeridian, local time at the consumer’s location;
(2) if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with respect to such debt and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney’s name and address, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to a communication from the debt collector or unless the attorney consents to direct communication with the consumer; or
(3) 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 other words, if an employee is getting harassing calls from a debt collection agency, and the employee informs the agency that the company policy prohibits the employee from taking such calls at work, the agency is required by law to stop calling the person at work.
Note, however, that the Act applies primarily to third-party collection agencies, not to organizations attempting to collect their own debts. For example, the law does not apply to a property manager who is attempting to collect a tenant’s overdue rent, or to a utility attempting to collect an overdue electric bill. See the definition of “debt collector” in U.S.C. 1692(a)(6).