Legal Question in Employment Law in California
Hello, I have a question regarding laws on overtime pay. I work for in the insurance industry. I am a non-exempt employee and has a home-office based. I am an insurance inspector doing survey inspection of commercial properties for insurance companies. In order to succeed in this job, we are required to meet our goals of "monthly revenue per billable hours". This number measured our contribution to the company. It is calculated by measuring the total number of reports you had submitted (in dollars) divided by the number of hours you had worked. That gives you the revenue per billable hours for that month. For every year in the almost 6 years I've worked there, the required minimum revenue per billable hours have been increased consistently. Our regular work schedules is 37.5 per week. When I first started this job, we are paid overtime over our required work schedule; however, when the economy turned sour, the company put a moratorium on all overtime pay. At the same time, in order to be more competitive, our company created more projects to attract business and increase profitability. Basically, the employees with the same position as I do now has to do more work and long hours but we don't get the overtime pay. We are what I believe are underpaid workers. We are essentially required to meet the minimum revenue per billable hour requirement, otherwise, we will be fired. And in order to meet the requirement, I have to work extra hours. But with the overtime moratorium, we will not get paid for those hours. I feel that I am being forced to work overtime to meet the company's goals set for me but not get paid for those long overtime hours. We have brought this to our immediate managers and he kept saying that the required revenue per billable hours is set by the regional director. What can you advise as my chances of getting compensation. I have been put on probation as a result of not meeting the minimum revenue per billable hours goal. I am working some overtime, not getting paid for those hours and is still in trouble because i did not meet that goal.
2 Answers from Attorneys
The practice that you describe is a violation of both the California labor code and the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA), assuming, as you state, that you are not exempt. You and your co-employees who are being denied payment for overtime work are entitled to compensation, including penalties and interest, for the unpaid hours worked.
My office handles wage and hour class actions in conjunction with a team of other attorneys. Depending on the number of affected employees and other factors, we might be interested in handling such a case on your behalf.
Please contact my office for a no obligation consultation.
Assuming you are actually a non-exempt employee, this is illegal. If you are confident that you are non-exempt, you may want make a WRITTEN complaint to your employer that you are being disciplined for refusing to work without pay in violation of California and Federal law. Your employer is not permitted to retaliate against you for making this type of complaint. If you employer fires you in retaliation for making this complaint, you would likely have a good wrongful termination lawsuit. Of course, you don�t want to get fired, but if you are going to be fired anyway for failing to make your billable hours, it is a good idea for you to go on record as having complained about the wage and hour violations that may ultimately lead to your termination.
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