Legal Question in Employment Law in California
Hourly Pay
I am a salaried field investigator. My employer has given me seven days notice that I will be changed to hourly. I figured out that I will lose $3,000.00 a year in wages if I work a 40 hour work week, problem is my employer most likely cannot provide 40 hours a week. Is it ok that they are doing this on such short notice?
Also, they are apparently going to somewhow deduct hours off of my travel time to and from the client's, ie not pay me for actual time driven to and from the client's but still bill the client the origional amount. Can they legally not pay me for my time. Once I leave on the way to the client's, I am on the clock!?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Hourly Pay
As to the conversion from hourly to salary, your employer may have been advised that you do not qualify as being exempt from overtime pay. You may be owed overtime for every hour worked more than 8 in a day or 40 in a week. See our website for a simple test www.righettilaw.com. The time of the conversion is legal as they are otherwise acting illegally in not paying you hourly.
Secondly, travel time is a difficult area. Commuting to work, even if it is at different jobsites, is not compensable. However, if you leave one jobsite to travel to another during the work day, that travel time is compensable as is your mileage.
Please let me know how many salaried field investigators are employed at your company. Together, you may have an interesting class action case against your employer for unpaid overtime wages.
1-800-447-5549
Re: Hourly Pay
If you are now properly an hourly person, you were also properly one before -- so you may have an OT claim worth pursuing for that unpaid time, as would anyone else in the same catagory as you. If you are not properly hourly, then the change can be contested. Travel time is not payable to and from work, only from site to site. Contact me if interested in pursuing.
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