What to Do When Not Being Paid for Work or Overtime

When you are not being paid for work performed or overtime wages, your employee rights are being violated. In California, wage theft occurs more often in particular industries: construction, health care, hospitality, restaurants, agriculture, garment manufacturing, janitorial, guard and security services.

Lawyers say that when you're not being paid for your work, the most important thing to do is document everything. Log all instances of being unpaid or underpaid wages with the date and time and work performed, as soon as they occur. The more evidence you can give to lawyers of instances of unpaid wages, the more compensation a lawyer will be able to get for you. If other employees are also cheated out of their wages, be sure to tell your attorney, as a class action lawsuit can be very strong.

Not being paid for work performed commonly violates one of these:

• All employees must be paid minimum wage, at the very least, regardless of immigration status (e.g. illegal or legal). At the time of this writing, minimum wage is $9.00 an hour in California. Minimum wage, in California, will increase to $10.00 an hour on January 1, 2016.
• Employers are required to pay their workers overtime when any time over 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week is performed at a rate of one and a half times the wage per hour for time worked over 8 hours a day and two times the wage per hour for time worked over 12 hours a day.
• Time spent traveling as part of a work activity must be paid and considered as hours worked, such as travel between job sites. Employers must also reimburse workers of expenses incurred during this time, such as payment of gas used or parking fees.
• Breaks required at the workplace must be paid. Employees should be allowed to leave the place of employment for rest and meal breaks. If the employee is not permitted to leave the workplace, during a break, the employer must pay for their time.
• Employees must be paid for work "suffered or permitted" even if the employer does not specifically authorize the work. If the employer knows or has good reason to believe that the employee is continuing to work then that time must be considered as time worked. This commonly occurs when the employee takes home work to perform and the manager knows the employee is taking work home or the employee is working past their normal working hours. Even though the time worked was unscheduled, the employee was "suffered and permitted" to work and the manager was aware of it.
• Workers required to remain on-call and their lives suffer because of it, such as by restriction of activities or geographic location, must be paid for the hours worked while on-call. In other words, if an employee's freedom was constrained  by being on-call, the employee must be paid for time worked at his regular wage per hour or overtime rate, if the hours worked on-call are calculated to fall in the range of overtime work.

Lawyers say there are many more ways workers can be cheated out of their wages or hours worked. Thus, it is always best to speak to an attorney with expertise in employment and civil rights laws, such as the lawyers from LibertyBell Law Group.

Wage theft occurs more to illegal aliens and undocumented immigrants because many do not know their civil and employee rights. Civil attorneys in California emphasize that everyone is entitled to receive at least minimum wage and be paid for all time worked and the employee's immigration status does not matter. The courts and judges do not care about the immigration status of an employee when a labor complaint or employment lawsuit has been filed. It is illegal for a business being sued or investigated for a labor complaint to bring up immigration status or report that issue to law enforcement or government agency.

Employment law lawyers from LibertyBell Law Group know how to protect your rights and get you the most compensation for the time you have worked and not been paid and damages suffered. Our lawyers in California have expertise in employment law, lawsuits and settlements. Most of the time, our attorneys are able to get clients the best settlements without even going to trial. Though, if necessary, our employment law lawyers will not hesitate to file a lawsuit to get you the compensation and justice you deserve.

If you believe you have not been paid for work you did, overtime or have had any of your employee rights violated, call LibertyBell Law Group attorneys now at 855-200-ATTY (855-200-2889).

LibertyBell Law Group attorneys have won many awards and are well-known for their expertise in civil law. The attorneys also have top client reviews as they are dedicated to giving clients the best legal representation. They are the Newsweek 2015 Legal Superstars.

Leyes de California de Trabajo para Ilegales

California laws on work and employment en Espanol:

Si usted es un inmigrante ilegal o no eres ciudadano, a pesar de todo estas protegido por las leyes de salario mínimo y horas en California. Abogados civiles saben que las preguntas sobre su estatus migratorio o de ciudadanía no se pueden introducir en litigio y no se puede ser parte de la conversación en corte.

Las leyes de California dictan los inmigrantes ilegales , los que no son ciudadanos y los trabajadores indocumentados tienen derecho a

• Se pagará el salario mínimo
• Se pagará por las horas extraordinarias. Horas extraordinarias son horas trabajadas en exceso de 40 por semana or horas trabajadas en exceso de 8 por dia.
• Obtener la hora para almuerzo or comer. Un empleado que trabaja más de 5 horas al día se debe dar un descanso para comer o almuerzo  no inferior a 30 minutos. Un segundo período de descanso para comer o almuerzo de no menos de 30 minutos se debe si un empleado trabaja más de 10 horas al día .
• Obtenga requiere descansos . Un empleado tiene derecho al menos diez minutos consecutivos de descanso por cada período de trabajo de cuatro horas del día.
• Por no pagar los uniformes o herramientas utilizadas en el trabajo. El empleador (jefe) debe pagar por todos los uniformes y las herramientas o instrumentos  que se requieren o se deben utilizar para realizar el trabajo .

Si usted es un inmigrante, que no es ciudadano ilegal o indocumentado y te gustaría saber cuáles son sus derechos y las leyes de California, hable con un abogado civil, que puede responder a estas preguntas para usted. Abogados civiles en California no le cobrará una cuota por adelantado, ya que sólo tendrán un porcentaje de lo que ganan para usted en salarios no pagados, horas extras, comidas y descansos, almuerzo y descanso que no recibites en su trabajo actual o en el pasado. Abogados en California tambien te pueden ganar mas dinero solo por que el empleador violo la ley y tiene que pagar las penalizaciones y multas.

California Laws on Working and Employment for Illegal Immigrants

Whether you are an illegal immigrant or a non-citizen, you are still protected by minimum wage and hour laws in California. Civil lawyers know that questions about immigration or citizenship status cannot be entered into litigation and are cannot be part of the conversation in a court room.

California laws dictate illegal immigrants, non-citizens, and undocumented workers have the right to:

• Be paid minimum wage
• Be paid for overtime
• Get required meal or lunch breaks. An employee that works over 5 hours a day should be given a meal or lunch break not less than 30 minutes. A second meal period of not less than 30 minutes must be provided if an employee works more than 10 hours a day. The meal period may only be waived by mutual consent of both parties. However, know that the burden of proof is owned by the employer and thus the employer must prove there was mutual consent if in fact a meal or lunch break is waived.
• Get required rest breaks. An employee is entitled to ten consecutive minutes of rest for each four hour work period. The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement considers anything more than two hours a "major fraction" of four.
• Not to pay for uniforms or tools used at work. The employer (boss) must pay for all uniforms and tools that are required or must be used to perform the job or work.

If you are an illegal immigrant, non-citizen, or undocumented worker and would like to know what your rights and California laws are, speak to a civil attorney who can answer these questions for you. Civil lawyers in California will not charge you a fee upfront, as they will only take a percentage of what they win for you in unpaid wages, overtime, meal and lunch breaks, and rest periods at your present or past job.

Employee Time Rounding For Hours Worked is OK?

Well, sort of...in a recent California court decision, See's Candy Shops, Inc. v. Superior Court, the court ruled that applying federal employment law in time rounding to employee's hours by employers is okay as long as it is neutral. Lawyers representing See's established that they round up as much as they round down. See's civil lawyers had an expert witness, a labor economist and statistician, analyze the employee data and Dr. Ali Saad concluded a statistical average on time rounding did not benefit either the employee or employer.

The civil attorneys, representing the plaintiff, also had an expert witness who had not separated out the grace period time in his calculations. See's grace period allowed employees to clock in early. See's civil lawyers affirmed it was company policy that employees were allowed to clock in early but were not required to work and if they did were required to alert their supervisor for appropriate time adjustments to be applied to their wages. Attorneys representing the employee class action claimed See's owed the employees $1.4 million dollars however they failed in taking account company policy on grace periods.

This employment law case clearly illustrates that without the proper direction of a lawyer, even the best expert can slip a case and cause the whole case to err and lose.

Top civil lawyers from LibertyBell Law Group know how important it is to thoroughly investigate a case and cover all corners and sides to win. Our civil lawyers work with top experts in an extensive array of industries and backgrounds. It is not enough to simply use experts, ultimately our attorneys know how to develop a strategy that wins and employ experts that support the strategy. Our civil lawyers in California use top experts and investigators for wage and hour, overtime pay, personal injury, landlord-tenant, and many other types of cases.

Lawyers Win Money for Salary Manager Working Overtime Labor in CA

A California Safeway grocery store assistant manager, Linda Heyen, got a huge victory in her employment case for unpaid overtime, even though she was a salary employee. Heyen was awarded $26,184.60 plus interest, in the Heyen v. Safeway Inc. case. Civil attorneys successfully argued that Heyen was misclassified as exempt and therefore was entitled to all back pay of overtime hours worked.

Heyen, the assistant manager, had been classified by her employer as exempt and received a set salary no matter how many overtime hours she worked. Civil lawyers specializing in wage, hour, and labor cases cheer this ruling because since Heyen worked more than 50% of the time on non-exempt work, she should have been classified as a non-exempt employee and be awarded compensation for all unpaid overtime hours.

Civil lawyers in California advise employers and employees alike to review the time spent on doing exempt and non-exempt work as in court it will be treated as either or. This recent ruling will most affect employment cases involving overtime, wage, and hour labor issues and civil lawyers in California.

California employment and labor laws differ from congruent federal laws say civil attorneys from LibertyBell Law Group. To avoid costly litigation, it is vitally important for employers and businesses to know how the courts interpret the differences in labor laws in California as compared to federal legislation by seeking counsel from the best civil lawyers.

Attorneys Warn Against Employers Using Background Checks

Attorneys working at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed lawsuits against BMW and Dollar General Corp. The EEOC claims discrimination is executed by these companies in their hiring or firing practices. BMW recently fired 70 black employees after criminal background checks were performed, regardless of when the conviction occurred, what the charge was, and how relevant it was to the job. A disproportionate 80% of the fired employees were black. Dollar General fired an employee for having a erroneous felony conviction. Even after the employee showed it was wrong, Dollar General refused to give back her job.

Attorneys working on Employment cases know employers must abide by state and federal laws when hiring or firing employees or face serious consequences.  Having discussed many employment matters with clients, attorneys know many employers are not knowledgeable on employment and labor legislation and adjoining civil laws enforcing anti-discrimination, harassment, and other civil liberties. LibertyBell Law Group's civil lawyers have successfully represented many employees in employment and labor matters.

The actions taken by EEOC attorneys is a warning to all employers to be very careful when using criminal background checks in making decisions about employment practices.