Legal Question in Employment Law in California

We need to know if our co-worker has a case to fight for, she died today 9/2/2001 in a hospital. She collapsed at work last Wednesday 10:30 am morning 8/31/2011. Three of our co-workers caught her before she hit the floor. It was a brain stem stroke and a massive hemorrhage on the brain. She was on a comatose for 2 days in a breathing ventilator and family decided to pull the plug on 9/2/2011 around 12 noon. Let�s call her Jane Doe for now and the company she was working for is X Co.

Jane�s father died 4 years ago with a stroke. Jane also had a history of stroke. She is the only child in the family. Several times, Jane walks from home to work and vice versa which is about miles. She recently joined weight watchers and signed up for gym membership for workout.

Jane recently passed her A+ certification last December 2011. She came on board with X Co. sometime in April 2011 thru a temp agency. She quickly learned the job as a software installer and begins installing software and taking calls the following week. On the first day she started installing software, she finish 6 installs which is very high. One software install takes an average of 2-3 hours to finish.

A software installer sits in front of the computer most of the day and spent hours on the computer and over the phone. Company provided two wide screen monitors and a wireless headset. Install starts either by taking incoming calls or by making an outbound call. Most of the time, an installer multitask by doing more than one install at the same time. It is done by remotely connecting to the client�s computer, screen the clients with a few questions, install and configure the software for about 2 hours, and then call back the customer for a brief training or overview for about 30 minutes. Often a customer is waiting to be called back for overview or training after finishing another because of more than one installation being at a time.

Before Jane came on board with X Co., there is already an existing �friendly competition� set by our director/manager/team leader in order for us to become productive in our install. There�s a team in another state which we compete with on which team has the highest install each month. Aside from this, our team leader promised us a lunch whoever finishes with the highest number of install in our team. On a weekly basis, they send us a weekly report of all the installer, print it and display it on the wall. Surely an installer wouldn�t want his/her name on the very last which would probably indicate that he/she is not doing well on the job.

Jane became competitive because of the motivation given unto us by our leaders. We have noticed that she was not taking her breaks to keep her numbers up and oftentimes she takes short lunches, skip lunches or taking lunch on her desk while working. On her desk, she monitors the top 2 installer by logging their daily install on her calendar.

The week before she died, our director came over for another challenge that whoever can install 10 in a day, will get $100. The highest install on record is 8. Jane was able to achieved 10 install on 8/26/2011. She was given a certificate award last Tuesday and the $100 award just 1 day before she collapsed.

We believe the competition among workers became a health hazard to Jane which built up her stress and possibly triggered the stroke causing a massive hemorrhage which leads to her death in just few days. Her working habit was due to the manipulation of our leaders by setting a �competition� that is unhealthy to our working environment. The question now is, does her mom have a case that she needs to fight for. If so, please email us at [email protected].

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