California Employment Lawyers Blog

A new federal wage and hour lawsuit contends that thousands of commissioned employees from a global financial company weren't compensated for minimum wage and overtime, according to a recent news development that our Santa Ana employment lawyers have been watching.

Global insurance company, AXA Advisors, LLC, is being accused of violating the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), by failing to pay commissioned employees with overtime.
The firm is being accused of exploiting young and vulnerable workers who have recently graduated from college, by making them pay for their training, and then forcing them to work over 60-hour-workweeks without proper compensation.

According to the lawsuit, AXA hired young college graduates, and allegedly paid the employees a base salary of $24,000 plus a percentage share of any earned commissions by licensed brokers, if the employees had success in finding new accounts for the brokers. The workers however, had to pay for their own training, and claim to have worked over 60-hours a week, with no overtime compensation.

The group of employees behind the lawsuit, that include over 1,000 current and former employees, are seeking class-action status, and claim that the FLSA violations date back to 2005. One employee claimed to have worked from October 2010 through February 2011 as a trainee and cold caller, putting in demanding 12 hour days, five days a week--and was unpaid during the training.

The class-action wage and hour lawsuit is seeking back wages and overtime, monetary damages, interests and any lawyer fees and costs.

Continue reading "Class Action Wage and Hour Lawsuit Accuses Global Insurance Company of FLSA Violations " »

Our Santa Ana, California labor and employment attorneys recently discussed a $10 Million California class action lawsuit, where exotic dancers in California and other states around the country sued their employers for employee misclassification--claiming that they were improperly misclassified as independent contractors while working at the club, and forced to divide up their tips to pay for stage fees, and other club employees.

In a related case, an exotic men's club in Washington D.C. named The House, was recently found to have violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by a U.S. District judge, for failing to pay exotic dancers minimum wage. According to the lawsuit, filed in 2009, the strip club dancers were paid around $40 for a ten-hour dancing shift, and also had late fees, stage fees and sick days deducted from the their wages.

The House, a strip club that claims to feature nude dancers, reportedly tried to fight back against the lawsuit by claiming that the dancers were independent contractors, and weren't eligible for minimum wage benefits under the Fair Labor Standards Act. But the dancers claim that they were wrongly classified as "independent contractors" rather than "employees" and that they should have been paid proper wages and received access to employee benefits under state and federal wage and hour laws.

According to Judge Beryl Howell, the dancers should be considered employees, as the exotic club exercised a significant amount of control over the dancers' work. The judge found that several other federal courts have recently found dancers to be employees under the labor laws of the FLSA, and not independent contractors. Judge Howell reportedly stated that the dancers deserve liquidated damages.

Continue reading "Strip Club Violates FLSA--Judge Rules Exotic Dancers are Not Independent Contractors" »

In a recent Laguna Hills, California employment lawyers blog, our attorneys discussed a wage and hour lawsuit filed against celebrity Chef Mario Batali, where former and current employees of his restaurants accused him of violating minimum wage laws and depriving them of tips and service charges.

In related labor and employment news, earlier this month, a collective action was certified in the Southern District of New York, against eight of Batali's New York restaurants--also alleging Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allegations. In the collective action, the servers in the restaurant claim that the restaurants pay the employees less than minimum wage and retain a portion of their tips unlawfully.

According to the lawsuit, the restaurants take a portion of all credit-card tips, equaling around 4-5% of the nightly wine sales--that should go to the employee tip-pool. Employees were reportedly told that the amount taken from tips would go either "back to the house" or to the restaurant wine program.

The owners of the restaurants reportedly argued that class certification status was not justified, as there was not clear enough support to prove a common policy of tip withholding in the restaurants. But the New York court disagreed, finding that there was ample evidence that a uniform policy of tip withholding was in place in all eight of the restaurants. This court decision allows the plaintiffs to send notice of the class action status to other tipped workers within the eight Mario Batali restaurants.

Continue reading "Class Action Status Granted in Wage and Hour Lawsuit Against Mario Batali's NY Restaurants" »

In a recent Carson, California labor and employment blog post, our attorneys discussed the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) new smartphone application, designed to allow employees to independently track their hours and the amount of compensation that they are owed--in order to fight against the increasing problem of wage and hour violations in the workforce.

According to a recent Washington Post article, overtime pay is the largest wage and hour issue in the country, with thousands of complaints coming in every year, from workers in the restaurant, hotel, retail and other low wage industries. The new smartphone application will allow workers to add comments to their hours, and then email the summary to their bosses, or themselves, to prevent wage and hour violations.

Experts also reportedly say that this app could also help employers, as it would help to resolve overtime disputes quickly--and encourage employees to discuss pay discrepancies with their employers. Also, once employers whowho engage in wage theft realize that workers are using the app to track hours and compensation, they may rethink their shoddy employment practices.

Every year, the DOL reportedly collects back wages and unpaid overtime compensation for around 220,000 workers who experienced wage and hour violations. Last year around 6,800 wage and hour lawsuits were filed, which according to the DOL, was approximately 700 more than the previous year. Employers paid $176 million in back wages in 2010, and in the past five years, employers reportedly gave over $925 million in overtime compensation and back pay to 1.2 million workers.

Continue reading "DOL's Smartphone App Could Reduce Wage Theft, Overtime Disputes" »

In a recent news that our Riverside employment attorneys have been following, a nursing home employee has sued her former employer in a federal lawsuit, claiming that she was sexually harassed by the administrator of the home, who is also a woman.

According to the lawsuit, Mary Ann Janoski was fired as the activities director of the nursing home in 2009, because she refused what she claims were sexual advances by the home's female administrator, Sheila Layo.

Janoski claims that while employed at Timber Ridge nursing center, she was asked in a sexually suggestive way if she would like to go somewhere after a 10pm training session. After declining the invitation, Janoski claims that she suffered a pattern of harassment by Layo, which led to a poor performance review. When asked why her work review was negative, Layo reportedly refused to answer.

As our lawyers reported in a related Carson employment lawyers blog, sexual harassment is against the law, and can include unwelcome advances of a sexual nature, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal and physical harassment. Both victim or the person doing the harassing can be either a woman or a man, and the victim and harasser can be the same sex. Sexual harassment often creates a hostile work environment, or can result in negative employment decisions like demotion or firing.

Continue reading "Same-sex Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Filed by Former Nursing Home Employee" »

The U.S. Department of Labor announced this month the first ever launch of a smartphone application or "app" that allows employees to independently track the hours that they work and self-determine the wages that they are owed.

This new technology is significant for employees, as it allows them to keep track of their own wage and hour records--which could be an invaluable source of proof if the employer is being investigated for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), by failing to pay employees their rightful wages, and keep employment records that are accurate.

The application is available in English as well as Spanish, and employees are able to track their regular work hours, break or meal times, as well as any overtime hours, for one or multiple employers. The application also allows convenient links to a glossary, contact information, and other materials about wage laws on the DOL's Wage and Hour Division website.

The users will also be able to add comments with the app, on any employment information related to their working hours, and view their hours worked in a summary--presented by day, by week, or even by month. The app also allows users to email the summary of the employment hours and gross pay as an email attachment.

Continue reading "New Smartphone App Designed for Employee Wage and Hour Tracking " »

In recent employment news that our Fullerton labor and employment attorneys have been following, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis recently announced the Department of Labor's renewed and full commitment to implementing equal employment opportunity policies for all applicants and employees.

In the announcement, Solis expressed her personal effort and commitment to make the U.S. Department of Labor a model workplace, that is free from unwanted harassment and discrimination--fostering a working environment where every employee is able to fully utilize their full employment capabilities. Solis stressed the importance for the DOL to achieve, maintain and reflect a high-quality and diverse workforce at all levels of organization in the department.

According to Solis, the department's policies ensure equal protections for all applicants and employees regardless of age, race, religion, color, sex, including pregnancy, national origin, gender identity, as well as mental and physical disabilities, genetic information, and sexual orientation. Solis' statement also includes signed and updated policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, pregnancy, and gender identity.

The U.S. Department of Labor is required every year to issue a written policy stating the secretary's commitment to equal employment opportunities and the department's commitment to a workplace that is free from discrimination and harassment.

Continue reading "Labor Secretary Solis Announces Continuing Commitment to Equal Employment in DOL" »

Our San Bernardino County, California labor attorneys recently discussed the topic of wage and hour violations in the trucking industry, where drivers often experience employee misclassification, as well as other violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), including wage theft, minimum wage violations and failure to provide meal and break periods.

In a recent investigation, led by the wage and hour department of the U.S. Department of Labor, Statewide Transport Inc., a commercial delivery service company, has agreed to pay over $270,000 in overtime back wages to 105 former and current warehouse workers and delivery drivers, after the DOL found that the company had violated the employees' wage and hour rights under the FLSA.

According to the DOL, Statewide Transport was found to have failed to properly compensated drivers for overtime--instead paying the employees straight time for every hour worked. Under the FLSA, covered employees should be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, as well as one and one-half their regular pay rates for all overtime hours worked beyond forty in a regular work week, plus any bonuses, commissions, and incentive pay received.

Statewide Transport's warehouse employees were also reportedly paid on an hourly basis and did not receive any overtime compensation for the hours they worked beyond forty in a workweek.

Statewide Transport agreed to pay all back wages to the drivers and warehouse employees, and agreed to comply with the wage and hour laws under the FLSA in the future, including the maintenance of accurate time and payroll records for all employees.

Continue reading "Trucking Company to Pay Drivers and Workers Over $270K in Overtime Back Pay" »

According to a recent news release that our Riverside employment attorneys have been following, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is suing a Starbucks coffee store for disability discrimination after the management fired a disabled job trainee who asked for the reasonable accommodation to stand on a stool and perform her job functions as a barista--because she is a dwarf.

The federal lawsuit, filed this week, stated that Elsa Sallard's employment was terminated after only three days of job training, after she asked for a small stool to help her to perform her necessary job functions. Starbucks reportedly disregarded her request and determined that due to her disability, standing on a stool while working would pose a risk to coworkers and customers. Sallard was allegedly fired on the same day that she requested accommodation.

Under Title I of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) it is illegal for employers to discriminate against qualified employees who have disabilities, in hiring, firing, job training and other terms and conditions of employment. Employers are required by the ADA to make reasonable accommodations to disabled employees, as long as the employee request does not pose an undue hardship.

According to the EEOC, Starbucks was in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act by refusing to provide Sallard with either a small stepladder, or a stool as a reasonable accommodation.

In the disability discrimination lawsuit, agency is seeking lost wages and monetary damages for Sallard, along with a court order that asks Starbucks to prevent this kind of disability discrimination from happening in the future.

Continue reading "Starbucks Sued for Dwarfism and Disability Discrimination" »

Our Santa Ana labor and employment attorneys recently discussed a class action wage and hour lawsuit involving workers who are suing their former employer, Chef Geoffrey Zakarian, for $1 million in damages--who in turn filed for bankruptcy over the lawsuit.

In related employment news, a California-based telecommunications provider, Covad Communications, has paid nearly $100,000 in back wages to 33 field technicians in California cities like Santa Ana, Chula Vista, Compton, Los Angeles, and other U.S. cities--who were employed by the now defunct contractor Certified Securities Integrators, Inc. (CSI), who filed for bankruptcy in December of 2010.

After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, CSI was found to be in violation of the overtime and minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, (FLSA). According to the DOL, it is important for workers to know that an employer's bankruptcy doesn't necessarily mean that they will be left unpaid for their work.

The DOL reportedly found that as the majority of CSI's business was provided by Covad Communications, Covad was found to be a joint employer, even though a contract between the two companies stated that Covad was independent. The DOL found the Covad was therefore responsible for paying the technicians the full amount due to the technicians under the FLSA, which requires that covered employees are paid at least $7.25, the federal minimum wage for any hours worked, plus one and one-half their regular pay rates for all hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek, including bonuses, incentive pay, and commissions.

Continue reading "DOL Recovers nearly $100K in Back Wages for California Field Technicians" »

In a recent lawsuit that our Orange County, California labor and employment attorneys have been watching, two employees from Walt Disney Co. have filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, claiming that the employee identification cards that they are forced to use expose them to the a lack of privacy, and a threat of identity theft.

The ID cards issued to Walt Disney employees are reportedly encoded with bar codes containing Social Security numbers that according to the lawsuit, violate California law. The Disney workers claim that the employee card codes can be read by most mobile phones, which puts employees at risk for identity theft.

The lawsuit reportedly hopes to include over 21,000 current and former employees at the Disneyland resort in Orange County that were issued these identification cards since 2007, but the employment lawsuit could also extend to more California Disney employees that could number in the thousands.

The employees reportedly use the ID cards for every identification-related feature, including gaining access to restricted employee areas and clocking in and out of work. The cards also must be presented to any security staff if requested. The Social Security issue was reportedly discovered after a security officer at Disney realized that any bar code scanner could read the bar codes containing individual Social Security numbers.

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego, California law clearly states that it is illegal for employers to print Social Security numbers on individual identification cards, but the law isn't clear about bar codes that have social security numbers embedded in them. The plaintiffs claim that the use of the card violates privacy guaranteed by the California state Constitution, because employees have a reasonable expectation of employment privacy, and have the right to not to disclose any of their personal information.

Continue reading "Disney Workers File Lawsuit Over Employee Privacy--Identity Theft Risk" »

High-profile celebrity Chef Geoffrey Zakarian, known for his successful three star restaurants, and television programs on the Food Network, has filed for personal bankruptcy, according to a news article that our Newport Beach, California employment attorneys have been following, to help fight off over $1 million in wage and hour claims from the employees of Country in the Carlton Hotel restaurant, which closed almost three years ago.

According to the New York Times, the Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition that Zarakian filed last month listed 179 creditors--152 of which are former cooks at the Connecticut restaurant who have formed a class action wage and hour lawsuit against Zarakian and his management team. The class of former employees claim that when Zarakian was chef and owner of the restaurant, he engaged in wage theft, by failing to compensate workers according to overtime laws, falsifying pay records to shortchange the workers and subtracting money from paychecks for staff meals that were not given to the employees.

The lawsuit reportedly has led to a bitter fight between Zakarian and his two former partners, leading the two men to side with the workers in the wage and hour lawsuit. Adam Block, a former partner is the restaurant, has reportedly filed an affidavit supporting the employees, and other former partner Moshe Lax, has stated in another lawsuit that Zakarian violated labor and employment laws.

The workers claim in their lawsuit that they were consistently underpaid and experienced a number of wage and hour violations. The suit claims that when one worker asked when he would receive his overtime compensation, Zakarian responded by ordering him to go and "peel some asparagus." The class action wage and hour lawsuit seeks $1 million in monetary damages and $250,000 in penalties.

Continue reading "Celebrity Chef Sued in $1M Class Action Wage and Hour Suit--Files Bankruptcy" »

A recent Los Angeles, California wage and hour investigation, led by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), found a Thai restaurant to be in violation of the overtime, minimum wage and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)--a frequent and growing problem in low-wage industries, affecting vulnerable workers who may not be aware of their federal labor and employment rights.

According to the DOL, Ayara Thai Cuisine restaurant has agreed to pay $162,201 in back wages to 35 workers, after the restaurant was found to have paid most of its employees below the minimum wage at a flat rate for all hours worked. The employees were reportedly paid in cash, and were paid without any consideration of overtime regulations, which under the FLSA, should be one and one-half the worker's hourly rate for any hours worked over forty in a workweek.

The restaurant employees were reportedly paid $80 to $110 for an entire day of work, which often included around 12 hours of work. Other employees who worked 6 to 12 hour workdays and were only paid a flat rate of $45 to 50 per day. The restaurant also violated the FLSA by failing to keep clear records of all hours worked by employees, as well as all wages paid to each worker.

The owner of the restaurant will reportedly pay all back wages due to employees, and has agreed to comply to FLSA regulations in the future, by paying all employees accurately for all hours worked, keeping accurate records of employees arrival and departure times, posting worker timesheets, and by properly classifying all workers as employees, as opposed to independent contractors--to avoid employee misclassification.

Continue reading "Los Angeles Thai Restaurant Pays Over $162K in Back Wages for FLSA Violations" »

The multitalented entertainer, Beyoncé, was reportedly hit with a $100 million lawsuit last month, by a video game company who accused the singer and actress of destroying Christmas by breaching a contract and reneging on an agreement to develop a video game in her name last year.

According to the lawsuit, Gate Five, a software developer, is suing Beyoncé to cover lost investments after the star reportedly pulled out of an agreement in December of 2010 to create a dance video game entitled, "Starpower, Beyoncé." The lawsuit claimed that after Beyoncé had already negotiated a hefty compensation deal in her contract, she demanded entirely new compensation terms at a crucial moment in the game's development--the week before Christmas.

The lawsuit accuses the star of a bad faith breach of contract that destroyed the company's business and caused 70 employees to lose their jobs just before the holidays. The summons also reportedly claims that Beyoncé's demands were so outrageous that her father and then-manager Matthew Knowles, renounced them. Beyoncé has reportedly recently ended her managerial relationship with her father.

Our attorneys based in Orange County, California represent individuals with labor or employment issues. Contact us today for a free consultation about your California employment rights.

Continue reading "Beyoncé Sued for $100M by Video Game Company" »

In a recent Newport Beach, California Employment Lawyer Blog, our attorneys discussed two California employment lawsuits against Dov Charney, the controversial CEO of the popular clothing store American Apparel--who is being sued for sexual harassment by four women who were all former employees of the company.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Charney was sued again last week by three of the former employees who brought one of the sexual harassment lawsuits in March--this time alleging defamation and invasion of privacy.

The lawsuit reportedly claims that after filing sexual harassment a sexual harassment lawsuit against Charney in March, former employees Irene Morales, Tesa Lubans-Dehaven, and Alyssa Ferguson noticed that fake blogs of a sexual nature started to appear on the internet that featured naked or scantily clad photos of them, and looked as if they were written by the women. Some of the blogs also made it seem that the women were admitting to an extortion scheme, which is against the law.

The ex-workers also claimed that after filing the lawsuit against American Apparel, the company released sexy photos of them to news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times. Kimbra Lo, who filed the second sexual harassment lawsuit in March, and is not part of this defamation lawsuit, also had racy photos anonymously turn up in the news outlets when her case reached the height of its publicity.

Continue reading "American Apparel CEO Dov Charney Gets Sued Again--This Time For Defamation and Fraud" »

According to recent employment news, labor unions and the construction industry in Connecticut are coming together to support Senator Dick Blumenthal's (D-CT) part in co-sponsoring the new Payroll Fraud Prevention Act that aims to put a stop to employment misclassification.

As our Riverside, California employment attorneys have previously discussed, employment misclassification is a nationwide problem, where employers often misclassify workers as independent contractors, or "exempt" from overtime laws, when they are actually employees.

Many employers use employee misclassification to avoid paying minimum wage, overtime, or social security and Medicare taxes, and unemployment compensation, among other employee benefits. In other cases employers misclassify employees to have an unfair advantage by underbidding their competitors to take away their jobs.

The topic of employee misclassification came up last year during the Connecticut senate campaign with candidate Linda McMahon, the former CEO of her family's wrestling company, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). McMahon and WWE were investigated for engaging in employee misclassification--by classifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees both in the ring with star wrestlers, and behind the scenes.

Continue reading "Labor Unions Back Employment Misclassification and Payroll Fraud Legislation" »

According to a recent announcement made by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), that our attorneys discussed in a related Carson, California Employment Lawyers blog, Harkin, along with Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), introduced a new act into Congress--the Payroll Fraud Prevention Act--similar to the Employee Misclassification Prevention Act introduced last year.

Under the Payroll Fraud Prevention Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) would be expanded, and would require that employers keep accurate classification records (exempt vs. non-exempt) of every worker who performs labor and services for their company and why. Employers would also be required to explain to workers their classification status, as either employee or independent contractor, and to direct them to the U.S. Department of Labor if they suspect employee misclassification.

If an employer violates the notice requirement for employee misclassification, under the new act they would be responsible for pay penalties of up to $5,000 per worker. Triple damages would also be imposed if an employer willfully violates the minimum wage or overtime laws of the FLSA by engaging in employee misclassification. Under the act the Secretary of Labor would be responsible for creating a database informing workers about their state and federal wage and hour rights and the DOL would also conduct audits to target industries with high rates of employee misclassification.

Under the bill, employees who are frequently misclassified as exempt from overtime laws, would be given their legal right to FLSA employee benefits, like minimum wage, overtime, and unemployment compensation, and others benefits. The bill would also aim to stop employers who misclassify employees to avoid paying their fair share of taxes--as they would be committing payroll fraud.

Continue reading "New Act to Combat Employee Misclassification and Payroll Fraud" »