Unpaid overtime

E

Epoch

New Member
Jurisdiction
Louisiana
Worked at a casino in Louisiana from December 2016 - January 2018. During my time there I was witness to multiple illegal actions. Eventually, I was asked to do something that violated privacy laws (among other laws) I refused and thus began the process of constructive discharge. My promotion (a job i had applied, interviewed for, and told was mine) was given away to a much less experienced person who was brought in from out of state, who in the long term created more problems for the company than prior to this occurring (interestingly this all occurred on camera which they have to keep for a minimum of 5 years). I was slandered against, and put on a employment blacklist for a period of 8 - 8.5 months. It was only stopped once local state police got involved, even though it was fixed I'm still dealing with the repercussions for any future employment. When illegal actions were found, and fines were given to the casino, the manager whom caused all this resigned and left the state; but not before withholding 40 or so hours of overtime.

The casino in question has admitted they found 12 hours of possibly 40 - 42 hours that I was not paid for. When I inquired as to how to go about getting reimbursed for this, they responded with it will take some time, then nothing and finally I may need to get a lawyer. Within the 1 year period of resigning under constructive dismissal, I reported these actions to the local workforce labor board. I've since called a few times for an update and have yet to hear back.
 
Epoch said:
Within the 1 year period of resigning under constructive dismissal, I reported these actions to the local workforce labor board. I've since called a few times for an update and have yet to hear back.
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Thanks for sharing your trials and tribulations with us.

If you'd like to be paid for the 40 odd hours of alleged overtime, your easiest remedy would be to file a small claim lawsuit.

If you determine a small claims lawsuit MIGHT lead you to the recovery of some funds, learn to limit the details ONLY to the salient facts.



These sites will assist you IF you desire to research the small claims process in LA:

LOUISIANA Small Claims Courts

Louisiana Small Claims Law – Small Claims



Louisiana Small Claims Court: An Overview.

From maximum dollar limits to statutes of limitations, learn the basics about small claims court in Louisiana.

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Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, LA | Home


Good luck.
 
at what point in those years were those hours worked? Generally there are statute of limitations on wage claims and they might have passed.

as to your other claim, can't help there.
 
hrforme said:
at what point in those years were those hours worked? Generally there are statute of limitations on wage claims and they might have passed.

as to your other claim, can't help there.
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Apologies for the late reply - hours were from february to June 2017.

After talking to numerous lawyers from here to new orleans regarding the issue I gave up and moved on. Every lawyer I met with, as soon as the name of the company was noticed they advised me not to bother, it won't go anywhere. One lawyer local to me stated he couldn't help but to forward me to fbi for violation of numerous acts including flsa. Gave them a call but was notified that their is nothing they could do. Local police stepped in along the way and got it sorted, the person who caused a majority of the problem resigned, left the state and now is a director at a casino outside of las vegas. Just had to wait 8 - 10 months to finally be taken off what was told to me is referred to as being employment blacklisted. Learn from my mistakes and if you are employed by a casino, don't say anything.
 
Chortle. Privacy law... in a Casino. Are they covered entities now?
Sorry, but the company isn't obliged to give promotions to people no matter what your qualifications or seniority or what anybody told you. There are very few discriminations that are illegal.
 
flyingron said:
Chortle. Privacy law... in a Casino. Are they covered entities now?
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Many casinos provide various financial services for their customers, like extending credit to gamblers, check cashing, and the like. For those casinos, the privacy provisions of the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act would apply. That Act requires financial institutions (which are defined broadly as any business significantly engaged in providing financial services, such that even businesses like tax preparers, are covered) to have a privacy policy, to make that policy available to customers, and to safeguard private information of their customers. My link is to the FTC page that explains the safeguard rule. So that privacy law at least applies to many casinos, and there may be others, including state laws, that would apply to casinos, too. After all, gambling and casinos in particular are highly regulated.
 
cbg said:
If this happened in 2017, you are past the SOL for any kind of wage claim.
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Perhaps not. While the statute of limitation (SOL) for suing for an overtime violation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) is two years (or 3 years if the jury finds the employer willfully violated the statute), there is the possibility that the OP might successfully sue for what he claims is owed in state court as a breach of contract claim. All employment arrangements are contractual (something that many people seem to forget) and thus failure to pay the agreed upon wage would be a breach of contract by the employer. Louisiana appears to have an unusually long SOL for contract claims, 10 years for both oral and written contracts.
 
I was (perhaps not successfully) distinguishing between a wage claim through the DOL (state or Federal) and any kind of contract claim in civil court. That was the intent; maybe I only made that distinction in my head, but I really and truly did make it there. :D

At the time my post was time stamped I was a bit distracted with issues of national import...
 
cbg said:
I was (perhaps not successfully) distinguishing between a wage claim through the DOL (state or Federal) and any kind of contract claim in civil court. That was the intent; maybe I only made that distinction in my head, but I really and truly did make it there. :D
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I guessed as much, but the phrase you used of "any wage claim" is very broad and the OP might take that to mean suing in court regardless of the basis for the claim, hence my pointing out the distinction.
 
I getcha. Not a problem. Anything I wrote yesterday afternoon, both on the boards and at work, should probably be scrutinized for clarity.
 

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