Collection of backpay?

[Ninjakid]

Hi, I have a few legal inquiries that I'm hoping you could answer and/or help with. If not, it would be appreciated if you could point me in the right direction.

At my former place of employment, employees (myself included) were required to be at work when scheduled, yet when they would arrive at work they were asked consistently to wait off-the-clock until business picked up before they could clock on (to keep labor percents down). They would also make employees clock off for all breaks, even though they were not allowed to leave the store and were expected to clock back on their shift if business picked up once again. Required meetings for supervisors (which was the position I held at the restaurant), were also not paid for.

I personally told the company that I believed this practice to be illegal, and their only retort was that Washington State law allowed the company to act in this manner. Recently they realized that I was correct, and federal law required employees to be paid if they are at work as scheduled, and are not sent home immediately if their help is not needed.

At this time I wrote an email to the HR manager and the district manager on behalf of myself and all of the other hourly employees how they were planning on compensating the employees they hadn't been paying while at work. The next day I received a phone call telling me that I had been fired.

What should I do in this situation?

Thanks for your time,

Ryan

 

[Beth3]

You should contact your State's Department of Labor/wage and hour division immediately and file a complaint. Not only was your employer in violation of wage and hour laws by not paying you and others for work time, it also appears you were fired in retalliation for bringing this to their attention. I would also suggest that you consult an employment law attorney, as you appear to have a very solid case to bring against them for wrongful termination.

Your employer deserves everything they have coming. Yikes.

 

[Ninjakid]

The retalliation laws are what confuse me. If I'm not a contracted worker, I thought companies were allowed to fire me for any reason under the sun. Just like I'm allowed to quit my job at any time. It's fairly obvious to anyone that the reason I was fired was because I was standing up for the employees and myself, but couldn't they just make up other reasons why I was fired to cover that up?

 

[Beth3]

You're referring to the "at will" employment relationship doctrine. Yes, you may quit a job any time you like. Conversely, an employer can terminate you for any reason EXCEPT FOR a specifically prohibited reason. For example, a 60 year old handicapped Hispanic female may be lawfylly terminated due to layoff, poor job performance, bad attendance, or even for no reason at all. But she can't be terminated because of her gender, race, age, or handicap. That is specifically prohibited by state and federal laws.

Same goes for firing you in retalliation for complaining about the wage and hour violations. So listen up - talk to an employment law attorney asap. You appear to have a heck of a claim for wrongful termination.

 

[Beth3]

BTW - It's fairly obvious to anyone that the reason I was fired was because I was standing up for the employees and myself, but couldn't they just make up other reasons why I was fired to cover that up?

Sure, they can try and they probably will if you bring a legal claim. The problem they're going to have is to come up with a plausible and justifiable reason to terminate you out of the blue that just happened to coincide with your complaint about the overtime violations. Unless there are some significant facts about your job performance or disciplinary actions you received that you have failed to mention in your posts, they're screwed.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

There are whisteblower laws and in your instance, you may want to take a look at the US Department of Labr web site and contact them. See the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) site at:

http://www.osha.gov/

There are various federal and state laws that might be of assistance.

Originally posted by Ninjakid
Hi, I have a few legal inquiries that I'm hoping you could answer and/or help with. If not, it would be appreciated if you could point me in the right direction.

At my former place of employment, employees (myself included) were required to be at work when scheduled, yet when they would arrive at work they were asked consistently to wait off-the-clock until business picked up before they could clock on (to keep labor percents down). They would also make employees clock off for all breaks, even though they were not allowed to leave the store and were expected to clock back on their shift if business picked up once again. Required meetings for supervisors (which was the position I held at the restaurant), were also not paid for.

I personally told the company that I believed this practice to be illegal, and their only retort was that Washington State law allowed the company to act in this manner. Recently they realized that I was correct, and federal law required employees to be paid if they are at work as scheduled, and are not sent home immediately if their help is not needed.

At this time I wrote an email to the HR manager and the district manager on behalf of myself and all of the other hourly employees how they were planning on compensating the employees they hadn't been paying while at work. The next day I received a phone call telling me that I had been fired.

What should I do in this situation?

Thanks for your time,

Ryan

 

[Beth3]

What do OSHA reg's have to do with a wage and hour complaint???