Legal Question in Employment Law in California

My company issued pay cuts for hourly and salaried employess in March of 2009. There were approximately 7 salaried employees and 10+ hourly employees who were laid off completely as well. The lay-offs and salary cuts were economy related according to management. I personally did not question this because our overall sales had been reduced greatly compared to the previous year. I am 99.9% sure that the pay cuts were not uniform as in a % across the board cut but more of a case by case basis. Each employee met with management individually to discuss their salary and the reduction. Because of a contractual agreement I had with the company, I was able to negotiate less of a pay decrease compared to what management proposed to give me. I did greatly appreciate their willingness to work with me on this matter.

The problem is this: Since the pay cuts and layoffs, 2 new employees have been hired. One of the positions is for a new office that the company is opening in attempts to expand business. This new office is in an area located relatively close to our operation, and the area is currenly being serviced by the company. This is primarily a move to increase sales. The other is an internal position that the company could argue is a position of one of the laid-off individuals, but to me appears to be a new type of position. My company is very bad at assigning titles to jobs, so it is a bit difficult to pinpoint exact roles/titles.

My question is this:

Is it problematic for the company that they have hired for new positions so soon after handing out lay-offs and pay cuts? Should salaries have been returned prior to new hiring? Our sales #'s have basically stayed the same compared to when the lay-offs and pay cuts occured 4 months ago.

Thank you for your help

Kurt

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