California Employment Lawyers Blog

In a recent Los Angeles California employment lawyers blog, Vincent Howard discussed two Hollywood wrongful termination lawsuits involving movie star Sharon Stone--who was recently sued by her former housekeeper and her former nanny, for violations of California and federal labor laws.

This week, pop star Usher made employment news headlines after his former nanny filed a wrongful termination and overtime lawsuit against the music icon, claiming that she was not paid for overtime hours while taking care of this two small children. Cecelia Duncan claimed in the wrongful termination lawsuit that she was hired as a part time nanny for the singer's children in 2010, but that she often worked over forty hours a week, with no overtime compensation.

Duncan reportedly told Usher in 2011 that she was being overworked without receiving proper overtime compensation. One year later in 2012, Duncan claims in her wrongful termination lawsuit that she was fired and never paid the extra overtime compensation for the hours that she worked while being employed by Usher.

The former nanny is suing Usher for wrongful termination, failure to pay proper overtime wages, and damages, although the damages were reportedly not specified in the lawsuit. Usher, according to the Hollywood Reporter was paid $7 million from hosting the wildly popular NBC show, "The Voice" in 2012. Usher's representative's made a statement that this lawsuit is completely without merit.

Continue reading "Usher Sued by Former Nanny for Wrongful Termination, Overtime Violations" »

According to new wage and hour lawsuit data from the Federal Judicial Center, the number of employees who have sued their employers over wage and hour issues in the workplace has substantially increased. Costa Mesa-based attorney Vincent Howard has been following an analysis of the data that reports that over the past year, the number of wage and hour lawsuits have increased ten percent. This is the fifth year in a row that the lawsuits have increased, according to the study.

The analysis concludes that the first major increase in cases occurred in 2003, when the number of federal wage and hour lawsuits almost doubled from around 2,000 to 4,000. This number has continued to grow over the past five years, from over 5,000 lawsuits in 2008 to over 7,000 lawsuits filed in 2012.

These federal wage and hour lawsuits that allege violations of the FLSA are typically separated into three categories: hourly workers who claim that they have not been compensated for all of their work hours, salaried employees who claim that they are owed overtime pay, or have experienced employee misclassification, and restaurant workers who claim that their rights have been violated, when employers fail to pay additional wages after their tips combined with regular pay do not total the federal minimum wage.

CNN Money reports there has been a nearly 400 percent increase in wage and hour violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) since 2000. In a related Orange County employment lawyers blog, Vincent Howard reported on a 2008 study entitled "Wage Theft and Workplace Violations in Los Angeles" that surveyed low wage workers in Los Angeles County. The study found that low wage workers were consistently robbed of their wage and hour rights, by being forced to work through rest and meal breaks, being exposed to tip stealing, and subjected to a lack of payment documentation, late compensation and retaliation.

Continue reading "Study Shows Increase in Wage and Hour Lawsuits for Five Consecutive Years" »

In this week's wage and hour news, employees for the well-known candy company Russell Stover Candies filed a federal lawsuit against the company, accusing the candy maker of employee misclassification and failure to pay overtime compensation.

According to the wage and hour lawsuit, nine workers claim that Russell Stover erroneously classified them as sales representatives, making them exempt from overtime compensation--where their actual responsibilities did not involve sales. The lawsuit claims that most of the candy company's direct sales are preformed by other employees.

The sales representatives claim that the majority of their duties include receiving candy shipments, inspecting them, unpacking, cleaning, stocking, driving to stores, repairing display fixtures and processing credits. One plaintiff who worked for the company from 2005 until 2012 claimed that her duties included manual labor, and that she regularly worked over forty hours in a workweek but was never paid overtime. The company is also being accused of creating an erroneous calculation of hours on the plaintiffs' paychecks, to show that they only worked forty hours, when in reality they worked more overtime hours.

As Vincent Howard frequently reports in Howard Law PC's Huntington Beach employment attorney's blog, the FLSA enforces that most employees are paid with the federal minimum wage, $7.25, for all hours worked, plus overtime payment totaling one and one-half their regular payment rates for all hours worked over forty hours in a week of employment.

Continue reading " Russell Stover's Outdoor Sales Representatives Sue for Employee Misclassification" »

The writers from E! Network's popular show Fashion Police, starring Joan Rivers, have recently accused the network of violating their California wage and hour rights, alleging that E! owes them back wages that total over $1 million.

According to the Los Angeles, California wage and hour news, that Vincent Howard has been following, eight writers from the show recently filed a claim with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DSLE), claiming that E! has broken California law by failing to compensate them for all of their regular and overtime work hours they have accrued since writing for the show.

Fashion Police is being accused of ignoring the California wage and hour laws requiring that employers compensate hourly employees with their normal wage rate for all hours worked in an eight hour day, along with overtime compensation for any hours worked beyond forty hours in a week of work.

One of the writers claimed that the most she has been paid on the show was for eight hours of work, even though she consistently worked anywhere from twelve to thirty-two extra hours on the show. The writer claimed that the writing team was often required to work as many as sixteen hours at a time, with no additional overtime compensation.

Continue reading "E! 'Fashion Police' Writers File Overtime Lawsuit, Claiming $1M in Unpaid Wages" »

In a previous Orange County, California employment lawyers blog, Vincent Howard reported on a sexual harassment lawsuit settlement involving coffee giant Starbucks and a teenage barista--who accused Starbucks of failing to neglect her from sexual harassment and discrimination by a store manager.

In recent news, Starbucks is being sued again by a former employee for sexual harassment. According to the lawsuit, Kari Smith was constantly harassed and ridiculed by her co-workers at Starbucks. Smith claims that male baristas would hold her against the wall and grind against her with their bottoms. The lawsuit also states that her colleagues joked about the dark basement of the Starbucks café, calling it the "rape room" because there were no cameras there. Smith also claims that she was ridiculed for her tendency to faint, and her co-workers would make jokes about her disability in a derogatory and sexual manner.

According to the lawsuit, after Smith filed a complaint with her supervisors, she was fired abruptly in April without any explanation. She is seeking damages for discrimination and sexual harassment.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, sexual harassment in the workplace is against the law. According to Vincent Howard, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines sexual harassment as any verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature, sexual requests in the workplace environment, any sexual advances that are unwelcome, and can also include any offensive remarks about a person's sex. Retaliation against employees who stand up for their workplace rights is also against the law.

Continue reading "Former Starbucks Barista Sues Starbucks for Sexual Harassment" »

In a landmark U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) disability discrimination lawsuit verdict issued last week, an Iowa jury awarded the EEOC damages that totaled $240 million--reportedly the largest in the EEOC's history for disability discrimination and severe workplace abuse.

According to the lawsuit, that Costa Mesa, California-based attorney Vincent Howard has been closely watching, the jury sided with the EEOC, who filed a disability discrimination lawsuit against Hill County Farms, doing business as Henry's Turkey Service--claiming that the company subjected a group of 32 male workers with intellectual disabilities to massive abuse and disability discrimination from 2007 until 2009, after twenty years of similar illegal abuse and mistreatment. The company is based in Texas, but the work abuse occurred in Iowa.

The EEOC reportedly presented evidence that Henry's Turkey exploited these disabled and vulnerable workers for years, because their disabilities made them completely unaware that their legal rights were being denied. The evidence reportedly showed that the staffers and owners of the company subjected the workers, whose job responsibilities included eviscerating turkeys for twenty years, to constant physical and verbal harassment and abuse, restricted their freedom of movement, subjected them to other harsh conditions of employment such as forcing them to live in isolated, cruel, and sub-standard living conditions, and failed to provide them with proper medical care when necessary.

Among the verbal harassment and abuses frequently administered, the workers were referred to as "stupid," and "retarded," and were reportedly subjected to physical abuse that included kicking, hitting, and at least one instance of handcuffing. The workers were also forced to carry heavy weights to serve as punishment, and when they complained of injuries or pain, their complaints were dismissed by the supervisors and workers' caretakers.

Continue reading "Jury Awards Intellectually Disabled Workers $240M for Poultry Plant Abuse and Harassment" »

Costa Mesa-based attorney Vincent Howard has been following a recent U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investigation, after the DOL's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) found that Hutco Inc., an industrial services staging company, violated the Fair Labor Standard Act's (FLSA) overtime requirements by using payment and record-keeping practices that were evasive.

According to the WHD investigation, the company was found to have engaged in massive overtime violations in six of the company locations. Hutco reportedly mislabeled certain wage payments as "per diem" payments, and failed to include these wages when calculating the employees' overtime premiums--denying the workers with overtime payment. This illegal pay practice resulted in record-keeping violations of the FLSA, regarding the accuracy of the actual hours each employee worked, and the actual wages paid.

The WHD's acting deputy administrator, Mary Beth Maxwell, stated that temporary workers often run the risk of failing to receive their legal right to proper wages and legal protections provided to them under federal law. According to the WHD, employers are not allowed to dismiss their legal responsibility to compensate workers with overtime by using improper practices that deny these workers their rightful wages, and break federal labor laws.

Under the settlement, Hutco has agreed to pay 2,267 workers with $1,916,850 of back wages and will comply in the future with federal law. The company must also take measures to avoid future violations, and identify and pay workers who qualify for actual per diem payments, pay proper overtime payments to workers, and ensure that the per diem compensation is not automatically taken out of overtime calculations. Employees must also be informed about their compensation and employment terms and conditions, and Hutco must keep accurate payment records.

Continue reading "Hutco Staffing Agency Will Pay Around $2M in Overtime Back Wages to Workers" »

Presrite Corporation, a Cleveland-based industrial parts manufacturer, will reportedly pay $700,000 to settle a class action gender discrimination lawsuit, according to an EEOC press release that Riverside, California-based attorney Vincent Howard has been following.

According to the EEOC lawsuit, Presrite is responsible for widespread gender discrimination against female applicants. The EEOC found that the company consistently denied female applicants entry level positions at the company's three plants--instead giving the jobs to less-qualified male applicants. The commission also found that many women who were hired in entry level positions experienced harassment. One female employee claimed that her male colleagues told her that women should not work at the plant, drew pictures of her that were degrading, called her derogatory names, and told her she should open her uniform to show her chest for a photo.

The company was also charged with failing to keep employee data and applications--another violation of federal law. Presrite reportedly failed to produce more than a thousand employment applications for workers that the company hired, and also did not maintain information about the applicants that was accurate--making it impossible for the EEOC to properly identify the large number female applicants who were illegally denied employment because of their gender.

According to Vincent Howard, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discrimination based on sex is against the law. Title VII also mandates that employers must create and keep employment records that are relevant to whether or not an employer has engaged in practices that are unlawful--which includes hiring discrimination based on gender.

Continue reading "Presrite to Pay $700K to Settle Gender Discrimination Lawsuit" »

In a recent Riverside, California employment lawyers blog, Vincent Howard reported on a Hollywood pregnancy discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit, after former model Brandi Cochran, from the popular game show, The Price is Right, was awarded $7.7 million in monetary damages by a Los Angeles jury. The award was overturned by a trial judge in March, who stated that he didn't properly instruct the jury. Cochran's attorney expects the damages to be higher in the re-trial.

In related Hollywood employment news, a colleague of Cochran's, Lanisha Cole, another former model on The Price is Right, has settled a Los Angeles sexual harassment lawsuit with the game show's producers and production company, FremantleMedia North America--where she accused a male producer of sexual harassment, and wrongful termination.

According to the lawsuit, Cole began working as a model on the show in 2003. Cole claims in her sexual harassment lawsuit that her mistreatment began in 2009, when one of the show's producers stopped talking to her, and started giving more favorable treatment to another model on the show.

Cole alleges in the lawsuit that after an incident occurred on the show in 2010, where she was unable to respond to an on-stage comment made by Drew Carey because she did not have a microphone--she was reprimanded by the same producer. Cole claims that after the incident, the producer barged into the models' dressing room in the middle of changing during a commercial and harassed and reprimanded her about the incident while she stood in front of the producer and her colleagues naked, only wearing thong underwear. She claims in the suit the producer didn't try to cover his eyes, or apologize about reprimanding her while she was undressed.

Continue reading "Former Price is Right Model Settles Sexual Harassment, Wrongful Termination Lawsuit" »

Vincent Howard has been following a recent Los Angeles, California sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit filed by a former student of Bikram Choudhury, founder and guru of the popular hot yoga style, Bikram Yoga.

According to the lawsuit, Sarah Baughn, a Bikram student and teacher living in San Francisco, worshipped Choudhury as her mentor and hero, until he made inappropriate sexual advances toward her during her Los Angeles, California Bikram teacher training course in 2005.

Baughn claimed that after dropping out of college as a 20-year-old and paying $7,500 to study with Choudhury, she was initially uncomfortable after noticing how other young female students treated him with physical intimacy, by brushing his hair, washing his feet, and giving him massages, but decided it must be a cultural thing. Then Choudhury allegedly focused his sights on Baughn, offering her expensive gifts, telling her he had known her in a previous life, professing his feelings for her, and propositioning her about having a relationship together.

Baughn reportedly rejected Choudhury's continual sexual advances, trying to redirect the attention to his wife, also a teacher and founder of USA Yoga. Baughn claims that Choudhury pursued her continually for four years, with inappropriate physical contact while adjusting her yoga postures, whispering comments in her ear that were sexually charged, ordering her to publicly kiss him in front of others, and allegedly assaulting her during a teacher training. She reportedly discussed the sexual harassment to senior teachers at Choudhury's Yoga College of India based in Los Angeles, but was told that he was harmless, and that powerful men were often flirtatious.

Continue reading "Hot Yoga Guru Bikram Choudhury Sued for Sexual Harassment, Misconduct" »

Coyote Ugly Saloon, the bar made famous from the 2000 film of the same name, is reportedly being sued in a class action wage and hour lawsuit by nearly fifty current and former bartenders/dancers who are accusing the saloon of denying them overtime payment.

Anaheim, CA-based attorney Vincent Howard has been following this lawsuit that accuses Coyote Ugly Saloon Development Corp. of failing to pay 37 former and current bartenders from Coyote Ugly Nationwide, and 10 former bartenders of the Nashville-based Coyote Ugly, for overtime work performed.

Coyote Ugly is known for having bartenders and female customers regularly dance on the bar--as portrayed in the film starring Tyra Banks and Piper Perabo. The bartenders filed a class action lawsuit in 2011, alleging that Coyote Ugly violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by making the bartenders work overtime, and requiring them to share and pool their tips with bouncers and barbacks.

The wage and hour lawsuit accuses Coyote Ugly of engaging in a tip pool that was against FLSA regulations, because the bouncers were allowed to take 5 percent from the gross tips. Under the FLSA, a valid tip pool includes employees who regularly or customarily receive tips, such as bartenders, bussers and waitstaff, but not any employees who do not customarily receive tips or their services.

Continue reading "Coyote Ugly Saloon Sued for Overtime Violations, Retaliation" »

In a previous Riverside, California employment lawyers blog, Vincent Howard discussed a $12.9 million employment misclassification lawsuit settlement involving a group of exotic dancers from California and other states, who claimed that the adult strip club chain Spearmint Rhino wrongly classified them as independent contractors, violating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by neglecting to compensate them with minimum wage and employee benefits.

In similar employee misclassification news, a group of 1,245 dancers working at a gentleman's club in New York City have also filed a lawsuit over improper classification and violations of the FLSA, and have reportedly reached an $8 million preliminary lawsuit settlement.

According to the lawsuit filed in December 2009 by dancers Stephanie Carattini and Nicole Hughes, Penthouse Executive Club engaged in employee misclassification by erroneously classifying the dancers as independent contractors. The dancers also accused the strip club of failing to pay them minimum wage and overtime compensation, for failing to reimburse them for the cost of purchasing and cleaning their uniforms, and for withholding a portion of the tips that dancers received from clients for their dances. Another lawsuit was reportedly filed in February 2010 by another dancer, and the cases were then consolidated in federal court.

The employee misclassification lawsuit accuses the dance club of engaging in violations of the FLSA, along with New York state labor law, and for being out of compliance with basic worker protection statues. The preliminary lawsuit settlement reportedly gives each dancer a payment of $3,737.79 for the first year of working at the club, and $988.13 for the subsequent years worked.

Continue reading "NY Exotic Dance Club to Pay $8M for Employee Misclassification" »

In a previous California employment attorneys blog, Vincent Howard discussed a recent California wage and hour lawsuit filed by former Hooters waitresses, who claimed to have been subjected to violations of California labor laws including tip sharing, working through meal and rest breaks, and being forced to buy their own uniforms, among other wage and hour violations.

In recent employment news, another former Hooters waitress has sued the restaurant company, this time for violating the Missouri Human Rights Act, for workplace discrimination based on a disability, and for wrongful termination.

According to the lawsuit, Sandra Lupo was forced to quit her job as a Hooters waitress, after preparing for brain surgery in July 2012 by shaving her head. Lupo reportedly underwent surgery to remove a large mass on her brain. After the surgery, when Lupo prepared to return to her waitressing position, a Hooters regional manager reportedly informed Lupo that she would need to wear a wig at the restaurant.

Lupo reportedly complied with the employment request, but found that the wig caused irritation with her surgical wound. Her lawsuit reportedly claims that because Lupo was unable to wear the wig while working, she was forced to leave her job. In response, Hooters allegedly cut her working hours to the point that the was forced to quit. The lawsuit also accuses Hooters of forcing Lupo to quit her job voluntarily so she would not be eligible to receive unemployment compensation.

Continue reading " Former Hooters Waitress Files Wrongful Termination Lawsuit" »

An Oceanside, California phlebotomist, a person responsible for drawing blood samples in DUI cases, has recently won a $1.5 million harassment lawsuit, after accusing a former police officer of sexual harassment.

According to the lawsuit filed by phlebotomist Kimberli Hirst, her officer Gil Garcia engaged in verbal sexual harassment that created a hostile work environment in 2008. Garcia, who was fired after Hirst's sexual harassment complaint was filed reportedly, admitted to making comments to Hirst that were inappropriate, but claimed that the comments were consensual--a kind of sexual banter between them.

After learning of Hirst's sexual harassment complaint, the city began an investigation, that took about six weeks, reportedly ended in placing Gil Garcia on leave in October of 2009, with a dismissal in November 2009. During this time, Hirst claims she was forced to endure even more sexual harassment from the police officer.

In the jury's 11-1 verdict, they reportedly placed 25 percent of the blame on Garcia, and 75 percent of the blame on the city for the handling of Hirst's complaints. As Garcia was acting as an Oceanside police officer at the time of the sexual harassment, he reportedly will not be responsible for paying the jury's award.

Continue reading "Oceanside Phlebotomist Wins $1.5M in Sexual Harassment Lawsuit against City" »

The U.S. Equal Employment Commission, (EEOC) the agency responsible for enforcing the federal laws that make it illegal for an employer to discriminate against an employee or job applicant because of the individual's disability, color, race, sex, religion, age, national origin, or genetic information, has recently filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart--accusing the retail giant of sexual harassment and disability discrimination, for allowing a male worker to sexually harass a disabled female worker. Wal-Mart is also being accused of disability discrimination, for failing to communicate the company's anti discrimination policies to the disabled worker, and for retaliation, by opposing the female worker's sexual misconduct complaint--both of which are against the law.

According to the EEOC lawsuit, that Riverside, California-based employment attorney Vincent Howard has been following, Jamie Wells, a developmentally disabled worker, had been employed at Wal-Mart for over eleven years in the garden and lawn department. The lawsuit claims that from April 2005 until January 2011, the Akron-based retail chain allowed a male colleague to sexually harass Wells, which allegedly included inappropriate sexual touching while she was working on Wal-Mart's premises. The sexual harassment lawsuit claims that once the store managers were told about the harassment, they not only failed to take the appropriate action, but instead they fired Wells in retaliation, a few weeks after she filed her complaint.

Wal-Mart is being accused of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by engaging in illegal sexual harassment and retaliation, and is also being accused of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to reasonably accommodate Wells' disability, by giving her proper supervision, training and communication about the company's anti-harassment policies.

The EEOC stated that Wells' disability made her especially vulnerable to workplace sexual harassment, and once Wal-Mart knew about the harassment complaint, it had the legal duty to take immediate action to put an end to the sexual misconduct. According to the EEOC, if an employer fails to take appropriate action in such a case, the employer will be held accountable by the commission.

Continue reading "Wal-Mart Sued for Sexual Harassment, Disability Discrimination and Retaliation" »