Legal Question in Employment Law in California
California 40hr workweek/overtime violations
When I started working for .com company my hours were 10-6.
Recently, my employer started forcing rotating 8/10 hour shifts on all employees so that they can get away with 24 hour labor without paying overtime. Does this constitute alternative workweek which must be approved by all employees? Not only that but the employer also forces people into doing 24 weekend on-call duty on top of a 40 hour workweek. The on-call duty is pretty much always constant work (since pages are constantly coming)and all the employer will pay is $80 for 24 hours of overtime work! That has got to be against the law. Is there legal definitions for ''on-call'' overtime work? I am a computer professional that earns well below standand salary and I am non-exempt.
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: California 40hr workweek/overtime violations
An employer cannot force the employee to accept an alternate work week of 4 10 hour shifts to avoid the daily overtime requirement. You are entitled to time and a half for the first four hours after eight and double time for any time after that. You are also entitled to time and a half for the first 8 hours work done on the seventh consecutive day of work in a work week. Further, on-call time may be compensible depending on the circumstances. You can bring suit for these wages plus penalites. If you or your co-workers want to discuss it further, call me at 805/641-6600.
Re: California 40hr workweek/overtime violations
Your message raises several concerns dealing with overtime law and regulation of hours. It appears that your employer may be attempting to improperly fail to pay overtime hours. As you are an hourly, non-exempt employee, your salary does not matter at to these questions. Please contact so that I may obtain more information to better assist you with your case.
(800) 447-5549
Re: California 40hr workweek/overtime violations
Sounds like you've got a valid claim for unpaid wages and overtime. If you're willing to bring action, contact me to discuss details. If there are other employees, get them to join together to minimize the risk of retaliation. If retaliated against, that is a separate claim for wrongful termination of interest to me. You should get counsel to handle this.