Sprint Nextel, already in financial trouble, now faces a class action lawsuit by 19,000 current and former employees who said they were shortchanged on sales commissions.

A federal judge in Kansas ruled that the lawsuit could continue. Sprint previously denied the charges, which stated that the problem was caused by computer issues during Sprint’s merger with Nextel Communications.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs have not yet stated any specific amounts. However, Sprint is not in a good position to pay a large judgment right now, having lost $326 million in the third quarter (story here).

The company’s top CDMA executive, John Garcia, stepped down this week (story here).

More Broadband Direct:

• Cablevision v. Verizon ad spat: FiOS wins

• Patent payment from Dish saves TiVo from loss in fiscal Q3

• SeaChange buys into mobile market

• Sprint employees get class action status

• Sezmi secures $33M in new funding round

• Controversial AWS-3 vote is possible next week

• Survey: Consumers to spend less on premium channels, landlines

• Broadband Briefs for 11/26/08