Posts Tagged ‘ California Labor ’
2 Ways Working Over 8 Hours DOESN’T Mean California Overtime Pay
March 22nd, 2013. By AbiK
Ever wonder what non-exempt work situations do NOT qualify for overtime pay? While there are fairly stringent laws and guidelines in place for what requires California employers to pay overtime wages, there are a couple of situations where, as a worker who puts in over eight hours on a given workday, you are actually not eligible for California overtime pay. Let’s take a look at both examples, which are explained in more detail (and a bit more jargon) at the California Department of Industrial Relations DLSE section on their website.
1. Make-up Time.
If a non-exempt employee requests time off that will be unpaid, he/she can “make up” that time and it will not be considered eligible time for California overtime pay so long as these requirements are met:
- The employee may not work more than 11 hours on another work day, and he/she may not work more than 40 hours in the workweek to make up for the time off. The make up time, in effect, is an equal “swap” for the time the employee would’ve normally worked within the same workweek.
- The time the employee missed must be made up within the same workweek.
- The employee needs to provide a signed written request to the employer for each occasion that they want to makeup time.
- Employers cannot encourage or otherwise solicit an employee to request makeup time.
2. Alternate Work Week Arrangements.
It’s common practice in some industries for a non-exempt California employee to work an alternate workweek schedule. One of the most common arrangements involves working a 4-day-a-week, 10-hours-per-day schedule (typically called a “4/10” schedule). Alternate work week arrangements require a formal agreement and adherence to certain California Labor regulations (see DLSE overtime exceptions).
As long as the employer has complied with all regulatory matters, an alternate work week employee is not owed California overtime pay for working more than 8 hours in a workday (due to the alternate work schedule), so long as he/she does not work more than 40 hours during the workweek.
For more information see our California Labor and California Overtime pages.
Michael Jackson Class Action Seeks $$ – What Else?
November 19th, 2012. By AbiK
Michael Jackson might be dead but he will not die. At least when it comes to lawsuit filings.
The latest in the Michael Jackson post-death legal saga is a class action lawsuit filed by his former assistant, Michael Amir Williams. Williams claims that he was hired to attend to MJ during the “This Is It” tour—the one that the gloved one was gearing up for just before his untimely death—and that he and others who were hired to do the same were deprived of $ 7.5 million in pay.
The Michael-Jackson-owes-me lawsuit was filed against concert promoter AEG Live in Los Angeles last week. But there’s a twist to this one.
According to a Reuters report, Williams is targeting AEG Live because the promoter also hired Dr. Conrad Murray. Dr Murray, if you recall, was the man convicted of involuntary manslaughter for supplying and administering propofol to Jackson, ultimately leading to his death.
So Williams and other ‘This Is It’ crew member who’d make up the would-be class are employing some kind of transitivity theory here: AEG Live hired Murray; Murray was convicted in Jackson’s death leading to the “This Is It” tour to be cancelled and Williams et al not getting paid; therefore, AEG Live should be on the hook for Williams et al not getting paid.
Needless to say, the folks at AEG aren’t buying it. Reuters quotes AEG lawyer, Marvin Putnam (O’Melveny & Myers) as calling the class action lawsuit “frivolous”. He goes on to say that “This lawsuit is clearly frivolous; it is literally barred by at least four different legal doctrines. The easiest is that Mr. Williams was a personal employee of Michael Jackson’s, and was never a beneficiary of Mr. Jackson’s contract with AEG Live. As such he has no legal standing to sue on that contract.”
Williams is suing for breach of express terms of contract, breach of implied terms of contract, and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. As far as what he’s seeking for the class, it’s the usual “unspecified damages”–plus court and attorneys’ fees.
And if you’re thinking Michael Jackson is the only dead celebrity who lives on in our court system, he’s got company—Anna Nicole Smith is still visiting the bar as well.
Top 10 Lawyer Interviews for the First Half of 2012
August 27th, 2012. By AbiK
The journalists at LawyersandSettlements.com conduct hundreds of lawyer interviews each year on the latest legal issues—lawsuits, mass torts, class actions, settlements—that our readers are most interested in. The attorneys our journalists interview provide a birds-eye view into the cases we report on. Here are the top 10 attorney interviews that readers clicked during the first half of this year (in reverse order):
10. Attorney Stacy Hauer, co-lead counsel in the Minnesota State Court American Medical Systems litigation, discusses the transvaginal mesh lawsuits being consolidated into an MDL (multi-district litigation).
9. Attorney Tim McCarthy shares insight on the Starbucks class action lawsuit regarding the company’s switch from Tassimo to Keurig single-serve coffee. The lawsuit alleges consumer fraud.
8. Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik discusses the outcome of the FDA advisory panel meeting held at the end of 2011 regarding the safety and efficacy of oral contraceptives, including drospirenone-based birth control drugs Yasmin and Yaz.
7. Attorney Brenda Fulmer, who specializes in medical device litigation, talks about allegations surrounding CardioGen 82 over-radiation.
6. Attorney Eric B. Brown shares some information on making a Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) claim and what needs to be included to prove a 100 percent inability to work.
5. Attorney Shaun Setareh—a California labor law attorney—answers five commonly asked questions on filing a wage and hour lawsuit.
4. Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik, who is both an attorney and a cardiologist, discusses Yasmin and Yaz settlements and how Bayer had indicated it would handle settling Yaz claims.
3. Attorney Barry Kramer informs readers about excessive emergency room charges and how it is typically uninsured patients who are victims of hospital overcharging—and compounding the issue, emergency room costs are increasing.
2. Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik on the Yaz litigation concerning oral contraceptives that contain drospirenone and their alleged side effects which range from gallbladder problems to DVTS to stroke—and even death.
1. Attorney Stacy Hauer discusses the legal claim “loss of consortium” and how it plays into the allegations regarding the transvaginal mesh litigation. She explains that, “The woman and their partners who have been injured have significant loss of intimacy in their relationships due to their injuries.”
Top 10 Lawyer Interviews of the Month (May 2012)
June 29th, 2012. By AbiK
LawyersandSettlements.com publishes hundreds of lawyer interviews each year on the latest legal issues—lawsuits, mass torts, class actions, settlements—that our readers are most interested in. The attorneys—and expert witnesses—our journalists’ interviews provide a birds-eye view into the cases we report on.
Here are the top 10 attorney interviews that readers clicked during the month of May, 2012 (in reverse order):
10. Attorney Tim McCarthy, from McCarthy Law Group, on the consumer fraud class action lawsuit over Starbuck’s quitting its Tassimo coffee maker deal with Kraft Foods for one with Keurig.
9. Attorney Barry Kramer, on patients who have either paid, or have been billed, excessive emergency room charges.
8. Attorney Andy Hollis of Hollis, Wright, and Couch, P.C., on the case against ADHD drug Adderall.
7. Attorney Mark Thierman, on filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of Las Vegas limousine drivers against Bell Trans, Nevada’s largest limousine company, alleging failure to pay minimum wage and overtime.
6. Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik, on Bayer being in the process of settling certain Yasmin, Yaz and Ocella blood clot lawsuits.
5. Medical consultant and analyst Lana Keeton, on the dangers of synthetic transvaginal mesh and transvaginal sling for Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP) and/or Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI).
4. Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik, on the Yaz and Yasmin bellwether trials. (See more info on bellwether trials)
3. Attorney Leonard Emma of The Law Office of Randall Crane, on California labor—what “independent contractor” means and employee misclassifications.
2. California Labor Attorney Randall Crane answers the question: “Can I be Fired if I’m Disabled?“
1. California Employee Attorney Donna M. Ballman, P.A., on bullying and harassment on the job.
Study says LA surpasses NYC, Chicago in Wage Theft
March 8th, 2010. By AbiK
Every so often there’s a little news story out there that doesn’t get as much attention as it perhaps should. Take a story by Max Taves at LAWeekly.com not long ago. The headline: Unscrupulous Employers Skim $26.2 Million. Ok, surprise, surprise. But the real headline hits you when you read the subhead: That’s per week, from lower-income Angeleno’s paychecks.
$26.2 million per week? Rack that one up on an annual basis and now you’re talking over $1 billion in alleged wage theft.
Taves’ article (2/18/10) is based on a study co-authored by UCLA sociologist, Ruth Milkman, and Victor Narro. The 69-page study, Wage Theft and Workplace Violations in Los Angeles, concludes that 17% of LA county’s poorest workers are basically ripped off to the tune of $26.2 million each week—money they never see in their paychecks. Money that they should see in the form of minimum wage pay, overtime pay for time-and-a-half overtime worked, and rest and meal breaks. The reason, the authors argue, is that employers in LA county “know there’s no enforcement.”
What’s interesting in this study—aside from the sheer numbers involved—is that when the authors compared LA to those in NYC or Chicago, they found that LA low-wage workers were more likely to be Read the rest of this entry »
Find us on
Archive by Category
- Accidents (24)
- Airlines (9)
- Asbestos Mesothelioma (262)
- Automotive (25)
- Celebrity (14)
- Class Action (84)
- Complaints/Comments (15)
- Consumer Fraud (84)
- Contest (2)
- Court of Public Opinion (5)
- Crazy Sh*t Lawyers See (61)
- Criminal Law (4)
- Defective Products (111)
- DePuy ASR Hip Recall (2)
- Discrimination (22)
- Drugs/Medical (248)
- Elder Care Abuse (4)
- Emerging Issues (462)
- Employment (54)
- Environment (52)
- Financial (28)
- Food Illness (15)
- Human/Civil Rights (4)
- Insecurities (5)
- Insurance (16)
- Intellectual Property (16)
- Internet/E-commerce (19)
- lawsuits (161)
- Lawyers (20)
- Lawyers Giving Back (43)
- Lex Levity (10)
- Personal Injury (106)
- Pleading Ignorance (53)
- Real Estate (2)
- Recall (6)
- Scam (3)
- Securities (13)
- Settlement (81)
- Tort Reform (2)
- Totally Tortelicious (81)
- Veterans (11)
- Whistleblower (9)