Failing to Pay Wages at Employment Termination

If Your Employer Owes You, We Will Make Them Pay

Under California law, if you leave a company for involuntary reasons, your employer must pay you in full the day of your separation. You final paycheck must include all pay for reimbursed business expenses and unused vacation and time off. If you resign voluntarily, the waiting time for your final paycheck is not to exceed 72 hours.

Waiting-Time Penalties Are Serious

If your former employer has exceeding the waiting time for paying you all money owed, it might be following an illegal practice of delaying payments. There are other former employees who have the same legitimate legal issue.

Free Consultation ▪ No Attorney Fees Unless You Recover Compensation

Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik helps California workers fight illegal wage practices in class action lawsuits. We have a strong record of successfully fighting companies of all sizes. The time to step forward to talk to an experienced class action litigation attorney is as soon as your employer misses the required date. If you are the first to start a successful class action lawsuit, you may be entitled to receive a significant service award in addition to the compensation you are owed.

You Are Entitled to Earned Wages Plus a Waiting-Time Penalty

Contact us for a free consultation about the waiting-time penalty and any wages you are owed by your former employer. We focus on all wage and hour issues, including:

• Unpaid wages
• Vacation pay and time off
• Severance and release agreements
• Failure to issue accurate wage statements
• Business expense reimbursement

Should You File by Yourself or as Part of a Class Action Lawsuit?

By starting or joining a class action lawsuit, you add your voice to others. The evidence for a favorable settlement or jury award is more powerful and the money damages are often increased substantially.

Our lawyers represent clients in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, San Francisco, Santa Clara and throughout California. Call our offices or contact us by e-mail to arrange a free consultation.

Employee Job Benefits and Rights

Labor Law

La Jolla, California, Labor Law Attorneys

Labor laws protect employees from illegal payment practices at the hands of their employers. If you believe you are not being paid correctly for the time you have worked, you are probably not alone. Our lawyers handle class action lawsuits on behalf of employees throughout California. Join your voice with other wronged employees in a class action lawsuit.

Free Consultation ▪ No Attorney Fees Unless You Recover Compensation

Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik helps employees throughout California fight unfair wages.Contact us to arrange your free initial consultation regarding any of the following labor law issues:

• Unpaid overtime: Examples of unpaid overtime include expecting you to work off the clock, miss meals and breaks and misclassifying your job position as exempt.
• Business expense reimbursement: Do you regularly pay for mileage, travel costs and supplies? You are entitled to full and timely reimbursement.
• Wage-and-hour claims: We represent workers from occupations that include construction workers, sales people, office administrators and self-employed workers in wage-and-hour claims.
• Independent contractor issues: Are you being restricted, despite your classification as an independent contractor?
• Employment class action litigation: Are you being treated illegally at work? Chances are, you are not alone. In a class action lawsuit, your voice is joined with many.
• Failure to issue accurate wage statements: If your employer has failed to issue accurate wage statements, you are entitled to recover monetary damages for every wage statement you have ever received from the company.
• Hourly employees: Is your employer pushing the limits of hourly wage laws?
• Illegal wage deductions: If your employer has made illegal deductions or unlawful withholdings from your paycheck, talk to us.
• Job layoffs: You have rights, even after you have been laid off. Our attorneys can talk to you about the illegal way you were laid off or any adverse actions involving wages.
• Minimum wage: Is your employer in violation of federal and state minimum wage laws? Our firm can help.
• Salaried employees: As a salaried employee, you are not exempt from overtime laws.
• Severance and release agreements: If your employer has drafted a severance package to their benefit rather than to yours, they may be doing it illegally.
• Unpaid wages: You are entitled to timely payment of all your wages, including overtime pay.
• Vacation pay and time off: Violations can include unpaid vacation, unpaid PTO (personal time off) and illegal wage deductions for authorized time off.
• Waiting-time penalties: Did you know that under California law, if you leave your job involuntarily, your employer must pay you in full the day of your separation?
• Employment law: Our firm also handles related employment law claims that can involve discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

Racial Discrimination in the Workplace

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibit discrimination in the workplace based on race. When a company makes its employment decisions based on an employee’s race, it may be acting in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). An employer may even be liable for discrimination based on race when it takes steps to try and avoid discrimination when those steps in fact result in unequal treatment due to racial discrimination.

HOW TO PROVE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

An employee alleging racial discrimination in violation of California labor laws or Federal employment laws must be able to prove that he or she:

1. Belongs to a racial minority;
2. Has applied and is qualified for a job for which the employer is seeking applicants;
3. Despite being qualified for the job, the employer rejects his or her application or violates wrongful termination laws; and,
4. After the employee is rejected based on racial discrimination, the employment position remains open and the employer continues to seek applicants.

After the employee establishes that there was racial discrimination in the workplace or hiring process, the burden of proof shifts to the employer to articulate some legitimate reason for the employee’s rejection other than racial discrimination.

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION VICTIM? FREE CONSULTATION 800-568-8020

Our racial discrimination lawyers understand how upsetting it can be to lose out on a job based on race, especially when the employee is clearly qualified for the open position. Our race discrimination attorneys represent employees throughout the entire state of California - from the Pacific Ocean in San Diego to the Bay in San Francisco. Our employment discrimination law firm takes qualified lawsuits for racial discrimination on a contingency, no win no fee basis.

Employee Layoffs

You Still Have Rights After a Layoff

In this difficult economy, it is not uncommon for a worker who has been mistreated by his or her employer to be laid off. The job layoff may have been inevitable, or you may believe you were singled out for filing a complaint. Either way, you do not lose your legal right to participate in a class action claim against your former employer just because you are no longer on the payroll. Workers can file claims under California and federal laws for a wide variety of wage-and-hour infractions, including unpaid overtime, failure to pay the minimum wage and denial of vacation pay.

Free Consultation ▪ No Attorney Fees Unless You Recover Compensation

Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik is a class action employment law firm that represents workers who are seeking justice. We have significant knowledge of the employee laws and labor laws that are on your side. By joining a class of plaintiffs in a lawsuit against your current or former employer, your case has increasing visibility in the courts and the likelihood of punitive damages is greatly increased. An employment class action lawsuit is often the only way to force an employer to stop its illegal pay practices. Contact us today to schedule your free initial consultation.

Do you suspect that you were laid off in retaliation for speaking out? This is a type of wrongful termination, and it is illegal. Employers who retaliate against workers for filing a legitimate complaint face serious legal consequences. You have the law on your side — assert your legal rights with the help of an employment attorney.

We can handle a variety of class action employment claims arising in relation to a job lay off, including:

• Unpaid overtime
• Vacation pay and time off
• Illegal wage deductions and business expense reimbursements
• Minimum wage
• Unpaid wages and waiting-time penalties
• Illegal severance packages and release agreements

Talk to one of our lawyers about the circumstances of your job before the layoff, and why you think you may have a valid claim against your employer. We’ll do the research and the math to determine whether you have a claim for wrongful termination or other matters and can initiate or join a class action lawsuit with other workers.

Contact us to schedule a free consultation about your legal concerns. If you are the first to initiate a claim, you may be entitled to additional compensation in the form of a service award. We represent employees in class action lawsuits against employers in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, San Francisco and Santa Clara, and throughout California.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission’s (EEOC) investigatory authority serves a greater purpose than just investigating a charge on behalf of an individual for employee rights violations such as discrimination in the workplace or harassment. In other words, the EEOC is not merely a proxy for victims of discrimination, but acts also to vindicate the public interest in preventing employment discrimination. The individual victim of wrongful termination or other types of illegal employment law practices is of course guided by a desire to remedy his or her own discriminatory treatment, whereas the EEOC is guided by the overriding public interest in equal employment opportunity asserted through direct federal enforcement. By continuing to investigate a charge of systemic discrimination even after the charging party has filed suit, the EEOC is pursuing its obligation to serve the public interest. 

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) controls the employment discrimination charge regardless of what the charging party decides to do. Once a charge is filed, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the EEOC is in command of the process. If the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) determines after investigation that there is reasonable cause to believe that a charge of employment discrimination is true, it must endeavor to eliminate the alleged unlawful employment practice by informal methods of conference, conciliation, and persuasion.If those efforts do not work, the EEOC may then bring a civil action against the employer in which the charging party may intervene as a matter of right. If the EEOC fails to bring such an action, the individual employee may bring an action against the employer directly. 

The right-to-sue notice may also be issued to the charging party upon request or when the EEOC determines that there is reasonable cause to believe that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has been violated, yet was unable to obtain voluntary compliance, but decides not to bring an action against the employer.

Wrongful Termination in Violation of Public Policy

Wrongful Termination - Public Policy Violation

While an employer has the right to fire an at-will employee for a good reason, for no reason, or even for an arbitrary or irrational reason, the employer may not terminate the employee for an unlawful reason or a purpose that contravenes fundamental public policy. Employees have a wrongful termination cause of action against employers who fire them for performing an act that public policy would encourage, or for refusing to do something that public policy would condemn. When such an employment termination occurs, the nature of the employee’s relationship with the employer, whether at will or contractual, is essentially irrelevant. What is vindicated through the cause of action is not the terms or promises arising out of the particular employment relationship involved, but rather the public interest in not permitting employers to impose as a condition of employment a requirement that an employee act in a manner contrary to fundamental public policy. 

In a wrongful termination in violation of public policy action, the public policy must involve a subject which affects the public at large rather than a purely personal or proprietary interest of the employee or company. The policy at issue in the legal battle must also be fundamental, substantial and well established at the time of discharge. Courts in wrongful discharge actions may not declare public policy without a basis in either constitutional or statutory provisions. The public policy exception to the general at-will employment termination rules in California are carefully tethered to fundamental policies which are delineated in constitutional and statutory provisions. Taken together, the public policy exception to wrongful termination of at-will employees strikes a proper balance among the interests of employers, employees, and the public in general. The company is bound, at a minimum, to know the fundamental public policies of the state and nation as expressed in their constitutions and statutes; so limited, the public policy exception presents no impediment to employers that operate within the bounds of law. 

Employees are protected against employer actions that contravene fundamental state policy. And society’s interests are served through a more stable job market, in which its most important policies are safeguarded. In addition to statutes and constitutional provisions, valid administrative regulations may also serve as a source of fundamental public policy that impacts on an employer’s right to discharge employees when such regulations implement fundamental public policy found in their enabling statutes. An employment relationship where hiring of the employee is conditioned on acceptance of statutorily proscribed terms is not acceptable to courts in California usually. 

Moreover, it has potential for bringing serious mischief to the employment sector. Courts cannot expect workers generally to be cognizant of their employee rights and wrongful termination laws in violation of public policy. Courts tend to reject the concept that a worker, compelled by economic necessity to secure employment, can be thus coerced into signing sweeping agreements to not compete with their employers upon leaving the employment in the uninformed hope the agreement will not be enforced by the courts. Companies that fire employees for refusing to sign such agreements may be liable to the employee for wrongful termination in violation of public policy.

Gender Discrimination Laws

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against any employee with respect to his or her compensation, terms of employment, work conditions, or privileges of employment, based on the employee’s gender. Importantly, sexual harassment in the form of a hostile work environment constitutes sex discrimination.

To prevail on a gender discrimination claim lawsuit, the employee must establish that there was a pattern of ongoing and persistent gender discrimination that was severe enough to alter the conditions of employment. To satisfy this requirement, the employee must prove that his or her workplace was both objectively and subjectively offensive to the extent that a reasonable person in the employee’s shoes would find it to be hostile or abusive. In addition, the employee is required to demonstrate that the gender discrimination took place because of the employees sex.

In employment discrimination lawsuits, some courts ask the following questions to determine whether an employer is guilty of gender discrimination:

1. Was the employee subjected to verbal or physical conduct that amounted to harassment in the workplace?
2. Was the harassing conduct unwelcome?
3. Was the gender discrimination sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of employment and create a hostile work environment?

To answer these questions about whether an employer is guilty of gender discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, courts usually look at the following circumstances:

• The frequency of the discrimination based on gender
• The severity of the sex discrimination
• Was the employer’s conduct physically threatening or humiliating, or a mere offensive utterance or trivial?
• Did the sex discrimination unreasonably interferes with an employee’s work performance? 
• As a general matter, playful teasing and isolated incidents, will not amount to gender discrimination.

CALL 800-568-8020 FOR A FREE GENDER DISCRIMINATION CONSULTATION 

At Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik, our gender discrimination lawyers understand how hard it can be when companies single employees out based on their sex or gender. Not only is gender discrimination in the workplace immoral, but it is also illegal and the law is on your side if your company has committed acts of gender discrimination or otherwise created a hostile work environment for you.  Contact our sex discrimination attorneys in California for a free consultation about your employee rights with respect to discrimination in the workplace.