California law requires employers to pay overtime to their workers and provide regularly scheduled meal and rest breaks. Some employers fail to do so, either intentionally or out of ignorance. If you have been unlawfully denied overtime pay or have been made to work through breaks, you may be entitled to unpaid back wages, back benefits and attorney’s fees.

Misclassification of Employees as Exempt

Under California and federal law, employees are generally entitled to overtime pay unless they qualify as exempt from overtime under a few narrow exemptions for “white collar” employees and commissioned salespersons. The so-called “white collar” exemptions only apply to certain managerial, administrative, and professional employees who exercise substantial discretion and independent judgment in the performance of their jobs. Read More »

One of the most frustrating and perhaps bewildering moments in any employee’s career is finding out that your employer is ending the employment relationship. After the initial shock, questioning, bargaining, accusations, and maybe a moment of self-criticism, employees often seek out a lawyer for information. Inevitably, the most common question to the lawyer is a variation of “my boss fired me for no real reason, does this qualify under wrongful termination law in California?”

Wrongful termination is an umbrella term covering many kinds of improper conduct by an employer that leads to the loss of a job. Some situations and reasons for termination of employment may seem unfair, but that does not necessarily mean they are illegal or a viable cause for a lawsuit. However, many reasons that an employer may have to terminate an employee are unlawful.

Folsom workers are working in very difficult times. The economy is in crisis and employers are looking for any way they can to cut back. Sometimes employers cut back the work force and in so doing have wrongfully terminated you. Below are just a few examples of wrongful termination under California law: Read More »

A federal class-action suit has been filed against a New York unit of French insurance giant AXA Group alleging that thousands of U.S. employees worked as many as 60 hours per week but weren’t paid minimum wage or overtime.

The suit, which names two former employees of the firm as plaintiffs, alleges that AXA Financial, AXA Advisors and other related entities hired unlicensed financial product marketers, made them pay for training materials and registration fees, and required them to work without compensation while studying for exams.

Upon becoming licensed, the workers earned a flat salary and commission on sales but were “not compensated for any time spent working past 40 hours in a week,” according to the complaint. It also alleges that AXA failed to maintain complete timesheets or payroll records for employees. Read More »

The emails and memos written by administrators and doctors at Citizens Medical Center about three of their colleagues of Indian descent are, at best, derogatory. An operating room chief wrote of trying to force “the Indians off the reservation.” Others wrote about their “Indian troubles,” or labeled the hospital’s two rival cardiology practices as “the Cowboys” and “the Indians.”

At worst, they could be considered racist: “I feel a sense of disgust but am more concerned with what this means to the future of the hospital as more of our Middle-Eastern-born physicians demand leadership roles and demand influence,” David P. Brown, chief executive of Citizens Medical, wrote in a 2007 memo to himself. He continued, “It will change the entire complexion of the hospital and create a level of fear among our employees.”

But whether racial animus led Citizens Medical, a county-owned hospital, to close its cardiology unit to non-staff doctors – effectively revoking the privileges of Drs. Harish Chandna, Ajay Gaalla and Dakshesh Kumar Parikh to practice there – is the subject of fierce debate and a discrimination lawsuit filed by the three doctors in federal district court in the Southern District of Texas. The dispute has divided Victoria’s close-knit medical community, where many longtime doctors and hospital officials say that it is not about race – the city has long been home to doctors of all ethnicities and nationalities – but a struggle over egos and influence gone awry. Read More »

CHEYENNE — A local health-care facility has agreed to settle a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday announced an agreement with Kindred Nursing Centers West LLC, doing business as Mountain Towers Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center.

The commission filed the lawsuit last September in U.S. District Court here.

The agency tried to reach a settlement through a conciliation process first, according to a release from the commission. Read More »

Fitness chain Urban Active is facing another lawsuit, this time from former trainers at Central Ohio clubs whose allegations range from discrimination to sexual harassment.

Four former trainers – Lori DePietro, Jeremy Reeves, Adrian Gilbert and Corey Logan – filed suit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court this month against Urban Active’s Lexington, Ky.-based parent Global Fitness Holdings LLC, citing a dozen different claims. Among them: breach of contract, fraud, sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and race, sex and age discrimination.

The former trainers, three of whom are black, allege Urban Active management at the Columbus-area clubs where they worked forced them out by pushing clients toward younger, male or white trainers and withheld pay after not keeping adequate records of hours worked and destroying some records. Read More »

A veteran perioperative services nurse who alleged that Virginia’s Prince William Health System fired her unfairly after she injured her back and could no longer move heavy patients has lost her bid to recoup more than $1.6 million in damages from the hospital system.

Theresa Griffin, RN, who had worked for the system since 1997, suffered a back injury in 2003 that rendered her incapable of lifting more than 40 lbs. The hospital in Manassas, Va., accommodated this restriction of her job duties for more than 7 years. Then in June 2010, hospital administration told Ms. Griffin that it “could no longer accommodate her” and terminated her employment, according to court documents.

In a lawsuit filed in March 2010, Ms. Griffin sued Prince William Health System for more than $1.6 million, claiming that she had been treated unfairly because she was African-American and had a physical disability. According to court documents, the hospital terminated her employment because she didn’t supply the required clearance documents from her physician in order to continue working in the perioperative services department. As the case progressed, Ms. Griffin withdrew her claims of racial discrimination but continued with the disability discrimination charges. Read More »

WHITE PLAINS — A federal age-discrimination lawsuit brought by a parking enforcement officer against city Parking Commissioner Albert Moroni has been dropped four months after a similar suit was dismissed.

“I feel completely vindicated, and I’m very happy that the city has been exonerated,” Moroni said after receiving word last week that attorney Jonathan Lovett, who represents Parking Enforcement Officer Thomas Collentine, had agreed to discontinue the case “with prejudice,” meaning Collentine cannot file a new suit in the matter.

Collentine and another parking officer, Laurie Gianguzzi, filed identical suits in October 2008 claiming that Moroni hit them with disciplinary charges and sought to fire them because of their ages. Collentine, who was 65 at the time, and Gianguzzi, who was 46, said Moroni stated his intentions in an article in The Journal News describing officers’ discontent at heavy-handed methods being used to induce them to write more parking tickets. Read More »

FIFE, Wash. — KIRO 7 has learned a Fife police Lieutenant was the subject of an investigation for failing to act after a police dispatcher reported ongoing sexual harassment by a department employee.

In heavily redacted documents obtained through a public disclosure request, the lieutenant, identified as Lt. Douglas Burris, was approached by the dispatcher in 2009, but did not report the allegations to command staff or begin an investigation of the incidents. The woman, whose name is blacked out on documents released by the city, complained that the employee, whose name is also redacted, repeatedly showed her graphic pornographic images of himself and others on his cell phone, exposed himself to her at work, and pressured her into sexual acts. A source tells KIRO 7 Eyewitness News the city employee accused of sexual harassment was a police officer.

“It reflects on our whole department and the organization,” said Dave Zabell, Fife’s city manager.

The harassment began shortly after the woman was hired in 2000 and continued over a nine-year period, according to the documents. Read More »

Timken Co. has agreed to pay $120,000 and take other actions to settle a sex and disability discrimination lawsuit.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the settlement Friday. The agency brought the lawsuit in federal court on the behalf of an employee at Timken’s Randleman, N.C., facility.

The EEOC said the company refused to hire a part-time employee into a full-time position because she was the mother of a disabled child. The decision was based on the unfounded gender stereotype that the mother of a disabled child would be the primary caregiver and therefore make for an unreliable employee, according to the EEOC, which enforces federal laws against discrimination in employment. Read More »