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WAGE AND HOUR CLAIMS WHAT ARE THEY? AND WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT.
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 | There has been a volume of wage and hour lawsuits in recent history against employers who have abused the law and the rights of their workers by failing to pay the rightful wages for the amount of time employees spend on the job. These claims have resulted in millions of dollars in recovery wages for lack of payment of overtime worked, failure to allow for proper lunch breaks, working off the clock, failure to allow break time or the improper categorizing of employees as salaried employees when in fact they are hourly employees.
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RECENT CASES:
In December of 2005 a California jury awarded $172 million to approximately 115,000 individuals who worked for Wal-Mart in California between 2001-2005. The award consisted of $57 million in general damages and $115 million punitive damages. The class action lawsuit claimed Wal-Mart violated California’s labor laws, which generally requires employers to provide a thirty-minute unpaid lunch breach to employees who work more than five hours a day.
In a New York case in February 2006 Service Corp. International settled out of court for the sum of $4.45 million in wage and hour claims for New York employees.
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 IN GENERAL……… If you are a non-supervisor, you are entitled to several breaks and types of pay throughout the workday. Some of these regulations include:
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- Overtime pay for exceeding 8 hours worked in one day at 1.5 time your hourly rate
- For every four hours worked, you are entitled to one 10 minute break
- For every 5 hours worked, you are entitled to one 30 minute lunch break
- Double time for any hours worked that exceed 12 hours in one day
If you feel you have been working for any employer and entitled to the above payments, but have not been receiving them you may be entitle to compensation, interest, and the penalties your employer must pay. Our law office can assist you in recovering the loss wages you are entitled to. |
 | EXAMPLES OF WAGE AND HOUR VIOLATIONS
Federal and state wage and hour laws prohibit employers from “permitting” employees to perform off-the-clock work. Employers must compensate for all work that they knew about or should have known about. Employers must do everything within their power to prevent off-the-clock work. Not surprisingly, many employers are willing to look the other way while employees perform unpaid work voluntarily or under pressure. Common violations include:
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- Allowing or requiring work to done before the start of a shift, such as warming up delivery trucks.
- Allowing or requiring work to be done after the end of a shift, such as clean up, paperwork or completing tasks that “should have” been done during the shift.
- Deducting meal breaks which employees do not take or took with interruptions or significant restrictions.
- No-overtime rules and/or productivity goals or pressure which encourages employees to do some work on their own time.
- Putting employees on a “salary” without overtime pay, even though their job tasks do not fit within the overtime exemptions for “professional”, “administrative” or “executive” employees.
- Orientation, training or book work done on “own time” or during unpaid meal breaks.
- Rewarding the “good” employees who are willing to go the extra mile by coming in early, staying late, working through all or part of breaks, taking work home, etc.
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THE LAW FAVORS EMPLOYEES
Wage and hour laws are written and interpreted in favor of employees: |
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- Employers have the obligation to stop work if they do not want to pay for it.
- Employers have almost no defenses: it is no defense that the employees(1) acted voluntarily, (2) tried to hide the work from management, (3) agreed not to seek proper compensation, or (4) entered into an out-of-court settlement of the claims.
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- Employees can prove individual and group cases by reasonable estimation…not every employee need testify.
- Employees often can recover double back pay.
- If it loses, the employer must pay the employee’s attorney in addition to paying the damages – this encourages enforcement of relatively small claims and also encourages employers to settle valid claims.
- Exemptions form the overtime and minimum wage requirements (and there are many) are strictly and narrowly construed.
- Employees can go back three years to bring suit for back wages.
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WHAT TO DO IF YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE A WAGE AND HOUR CLAIM
Seek advice from an attorney or the appropriate government labor agency if you think your rights may have been violated. Keep in mind, however, that many attorneys do not know the ins and outs of wage and hour law and that many agencies are understaffed and do not aggressively enforce the laws. Be patient until you find the right fit. Our firm has experience in this area and would be pleased to have the opportunity to represent you.
We are “a difference you can count on”
For free report – seven things every employee should know - go to info@landerslaw.com and make your request
or call 619-296-7898.
For free case evaluation click here
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