Over the past decade,
California has witnessed an explosion of class
action lawsuits alleging that retail employers
have violated employment laws relating to wage
payments and retail employee expense reimbursements.
As one of California’s premiere law firms,
we have filed and prosecuted dozens of retail
industry cases and recovered tens of millions
of dollars for retail workers. Facts like these
have undoubtedly put every retailer in California
under the microscope for potential violations
of what we call “wage and hour”
laws. Damages in such cases go back many years.
The
most common scenarios leading to litigation
against California retailers are:
Managers paid as salaried employees and denied overtime pay;
Employees denied meal and/or rest breaks;
Working employees “off the clock”;
Denying overtime pay when not “approved”
by management;
Paying employees their regular rate for overtime work;
Offering “comp time” or carrying over hours into another week;
Requiring employees to arrive early to perform, without overtime pay, necessary preparations for work, including putting on or removing protective gear;
Illegally altering employees’ time sheets;
Reducing employee bonuses due to company-wide losses;
Reducing or “charging back” already-earned commissions;
Failing to reimburse workers for uniforms and/or other expenses.
The legal system is set up to “level
the playing field” and give workers
the power to correct workplace abuses. Scott
Cole & Associates has served California’s
workforce for many years as one of
the state’s most respected workers’
rights law firms and has recovered massive
and record-setting settlements for employees for workplace abuses.
For
a confidential discussion of your rights against
a former or current employer and/or to submit
a claim, please contact
us.
