Employment At Will in California

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An employment, having no specified term, may be terminated at the will of either party on notice to the other. Employment for a specified term means an employment for a period greater than one month. An employment for a specified term may be terminated at any time by the employer in case of any willful breach of duty by the employee in the course of his employment, or in case of his habitual neglect of his duty or continued incapacity to perform it.

According to Cal. Lab Code 2925, an employment for a specified term may be terminated by the employee at any time in case of any willful or permanent breach of the obligations of his employer to him as an employee. However, when you have an employment contract, even though the employer cannot force employees to leave, the employer could ultimately sue the employee for breach of contract and damages as a result of the employee leaving.

California Class Action Law

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The class certification stage requires an evidentiary hearing. (Hamwi v. Citinational-Buckeye Inv. Co., 72 Cal. App. 3d 462, 140 Cal. Rptr. 215 (2d Dist. 1977).) Declarations, discovered evidence, and matters judicially noticed determine the evidence submitted at the hearing. Evidence to be considered at the hearing must be presented in accordance with California Rules of Court, Rule 3.1306. (California Rules of Court, Rule 3.764(d).)

Typically, the hearing should address the constitution of the class, including the approximate number, geographic location, status of members, description of subclasses, and method of identifying class members. Counsel for the class needs to frame common as well as similar questions of law together with those unique to class members. The hearing must also deal expressly with the superiority of class action for fairly and efficiently adjudicating the controversy, the status of class representatives as members of the class, and the representatives' ability to protect the interests of the class.

The parties are encouraged to resolve uncontroverted issues by written stipulation before the hearing. (California Rules of Court, Rule 3.764(e).)Since court unification a "limited civil case" under California Code of Civil Procedure § 85.1 is one with less than $25,000 in controversy. In Stern v. Superior Court, 127 Cal. Rptr. 2d 402 (App. 2d Dist. 2002), opinion vacated, 105 Cal. App. 4th 223, 129 Cal. Rptr. 2d 275 (2d Dist. 2003), the trial court had found the matter was not a class action and ordered reclassification as a limited civil case without notice or an opportunity to present evidence. This was an abuse of discretion.

Common behavior towards similarly-situated plaintiffs can be shown through pattern and practice, statistical, or sampling evidence and may make class certification appropriate. Sav-on Drug Stores, Inc. v. Superior Court, 34 Cal. 4th 319, 326, 327, 17 Cal. Rptr. 3d 906, 96 P.3d 194 (2004).

Come Discuss Overtime Class Action Lawsuits in California

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California is on Your Side When You Are a Victim of Illegal Wage Practices
An advantage of being represented by the California employment law lawyers of Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik is that employees don't have to go into wage and hour lawsuits by themselves; instead, they are in the action with the state of California as their partner.

In 2004, the legislature enacted the Private Attorney General Act, also known as the "PAGA." The PAGA is enables private attorneys, such as our San Diego based employment law firm, to add another cause of action for civil penalties to complaints for overtime wages, meal and rest break violations, business expenses reimbursement, among other wage and hour violations. Although the state of California gets seventy five percent of the money obtained under this cause of action and the employee gets the remaining twenty five percent, it is important to understand that the PAGA is a completely separate, additional cause of action. In other words, it does not preclude the employee from fully recovering his or her overtime wages plus interest and any other penalties that may be available for the particular violation at issue, such as so called "waiting time penalties" available for each day up to thirty days that an employee is not fully paid his or her full wages upon employment termination.

Wage and Hour Class Actions 
Another advantage of the PAGA relates to overtime class action lawsuits in California. Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik has already demonstrated its excellence in these types of wage and hour actions throughout California, including in San Diego County, Santa Clara County, Los Angeles County, and San Francisco County. The PAGA only furthers the possibility of achieving successful results on behalf of employees because the California Supreme Court decided in Arias v. Superior Court (2009) that PAGA claims are representative actions that are not subject to pass through California's class action gauntlet. This gives employees leverage with their other claims under the substantive provisions of the California Labor Code for, say, overtime wages, meal and rest breaks, and improper wage deductions and calculations.    

Requirements for Using the Private Attorney General Act of 2004
The main requirement under the PAGA is that employees in California are required to file an action with the state for the wage and hour violations before he or she files a private action in court. Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik focuses on maximizing the recovery for employees that are victims of their employer's illegal wage practices. California benefits in that the PAGA provides a realistic way for the state to collect penalties for wage and hour violations, which hurt the state because less money paid to employees means less taxes for California.

Call 866-745-2949 in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County or San Diego
For additional information about our approach to unfair pay practices anywhere in the state, contact the California employee compensation attorneys at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik for a free consultation.

Come Learn About Federal Employment Laws and Regulations

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Employees May be Entitled to Recover 2x Their Unpaid Overtime Wages
If your current or former employer acted in violation of federal overtime laws, you may be entitled to recover two times the unpaid overtime wages. When employees are improperly denied overtime wages, they are first entitled to recover those unpaid overtime wages plus interest. There is also a penalty under federal law which creates a right for employees to recover liquidated damages in certain circumstances, like when the employer intentionally commits the overtime wage violations. At Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik, our California employment law lawyers strive to collect all of the wages and penalties available to employees. Our Settlements and Judgments demonstrate the level of success we have had recovering wages for employees throughout California communities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County and San Francisco.

Performing Job Duties Before and After Shifts 
Employers frequently require employees to perform job duties before they clock in and after they clock out of the timekeeping system. These activities may consist of anything from driving to work to spending time making sure the alarm system is active before you leave the store. If your current or former employer knows or should know that you are performing job duties “off the clock” and the duties you are performing are principal job activities, you may be entitled to recover compensation under federal law for the amount of time you spend performing such duties before and after shifts.

Mandatory Meal Period 
Under federal wage and hour laws, non-exempt employees are suppose to receive a 30 minute, uninterrupted and off-duty meal break for every 5 hours of work. If your employer interrupts these mandatory meal periods or fails to provide the meal periods all together, but does not compensate you for working through such meal periods, you may be entitled to recover compensation.

Compensable Waiting and On-Call Time 
Employees are entitled to compensation for “waiting time” and “on-call time” unless they are off-duty and completely relieved of their job responsibilities. Generally speaking, the test that is applied is whether the worker may use the waiting or on-call time effectively for his or her own purposes. If he or she cannot, the time is usually compensable. Regardless of whether you are in the Northern District of California or the Southern District of California, an experienced employment law attorney at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik can give you a free consultation on your federal wage and hour rights.

California Technician Labor Rights

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Under the relevant California labor laws and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, most technicians and technologists - such as engineers and workers in the avionics, veterinary and ultrasound industries – are entitled to receive overtime pay for working more than 8 hour workdays or more than 40 hour workweeks. At Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik, our California employment law attorneys focus on helping technicians, technologists and other workers whose education finished after college in lawsuits to recover overtime wages and penalties.
California labor laws require employers to pay all technicians and technologists overtime wages at one and a half times the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 8 hours in a workday, 40 hours in a workweek or the first 8 hours of a seventh consecutive workday. There are certain exceptions to California overtime laws and regulations. In the case of technicians and technologists, employers often rely on the professional exemption to avoid the obligation of paying for overtime labor. Instead of paying these techs overtime pay as required by California and federal wage-and-hour regulations, employers often illegally pay them a fixed salary without additional pay for working overtime hours. Technologists and technicians are also regularly cheated out of meal breaks and rest periods.

As a general rule, in order to meet the labor law test of a learned professional employee who is not entitled to overtime pay, technologists and technicians must: Make at least $455 per week; primarily perform job duties that require advanced intellectual knowledge in a recognized field of science or learning; and consistently exercise independent discretion and judgment. The ‘advanced knowledge’ requirement of the learned professional exemption refers to knowledge that technicians and technologists acquire through a long period of concentrated training and instruction. Technicians and technologists who become highly-skilled by working, rather than by receiving formal instruction, are usually entitled to be paid overtime wages.

When we investigate whether or not they are entitled to overtime pay under California employment regulations and the federal Fair Standards Labor Act, our overtime law attorneys often discover that technicians and technologists are being cheated out of their full wages and benefits they are entitled to make. Although employer’s throughout California- from the Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area- label technicians and technologists exempt from overtime pay, these workers do not meet the requirements of the learned professional overtime exception because the actual job duties they perform do not require a specialized academic degree that is a standard prerequisite for entrance into the profession.

If you are a technologist or a technician whose schooling ended upon graduating from a university and you are not paid overtime wages, contact one of our experienced labor law attorneys today to see if you have a valid claim to collect unpaid wages and penalties under the labor law. We represent technologists and technicians throughout California, from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area, in lawsuits to collect:

  • Unpaid overtime wages and penalties on behalf of salaried technicians and technologists 
  • Meal break and rest period compensation and penalties
  • Reimbursement for work-related expenses such as mandatory training
  • Compensation for the time spent on-call or standing-by under the employer’s control 
  • Penalties for failing to pay hourly technicians for work performed off-the-clock 
  • Damages for Wrongful Terminations and Demotions
  • Penalties for harassing and discriminating against technologists and technicians
Our employment law attorneys work with technologists and technicians throughout the state, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. Contact us to see how we can help you recover damages and unpaid wages under state or federal wage-and-hour laws.