Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Hello, I work for a franchise store in California in the East Bay. Until recently I was store manager. This past weekend I was ill and had no option but to call into work. When I signed onto this company I signed an agreement stating that if I were to go to work while ill, my job would be in jeopardy [we work primarily with food and contamination is a big factor in our business]. Upon returning to work Monday I noticed my manager privileges were taken away, in response to this I attempted to call my immediate supervisor who told me that they could not legally suspend, demote, or terminate me for being ill when I signed such a contract. I attempted to call the store owner to find out what was going on and received no response, for three days, those days of which I was still out with the flu. After hearing from my employees that they were accusing me of faking sick, as well as time stealing and a slew of unprofessional slanderous comments, I decided I would resign. I offered my two weeks which was immediately rejected. I went over my paperwork for the eight months I worked there and could not help but notice I was not paid any over time for the first six months, although I had on many occasions explained to them how OT worked in california, they did nothing to compensate me for those OT hours. On top of that they had been shaving hours off of my paycheck each week, since the beginning. A little here and there which added up to 75+ hours in 7 months. On top of that, they were hiring our temp employees under the table, which I understand is against the law in california and considered tax evasion, and would not hire temp employees who wanted to be paid through payroll.

After bringing this up to my manager, he finally got back to me [through text messages] and said that he saw that I had been changing employee times and considered that time-theft. As a manager I have the rights to change my employee times in the event that they did not punch in or out correctly. He told me that he has the times and situations that these occurred and that if I continued to the labor board or to the corporate office, he would contact local law enforcement for my time-theft. As none of those 'time- theft' accusations are correct, they were all valid changes that were reported to my supervisor when they happened, I was not sure whether or not that was a veiled threat.

The question I have is three fold:

1. Can I go to the labor board about OT hours that were not paid out? I have time sheets from those weeks which do not match the paystubs I have. This does not only apply to me but for every employee I had.

2. Can I go to the labor board about time shaving? after reprinting all my hours before resigning from my position, noticed that he would go in right before payroll and shave a little time off my days. His employee time records do not match my own, and mine do not match my paychecks.

He has been doing this for all employees and one month ago, told me that it was now part of my job to insert breaks into peoples time clocks, regardless of whether or not they took one, so he could save himself from getting in trouble with the labor board. if I did not do this, 'he would find someone who could do all the responsibilities asked of this position' [i.e. terminate me].

3. He has the records of when, whose and what times I changed throughout my working there and while they were all justified changes, he claims that having those records alone proves of time-theft. Does he have a legal leg to stand on when he tells them that I, as a manager, was illegally time-stealing, based on those records? Even though it was a part of my manager position to do such things? Or is this simply a passive aggressive move to get me to not contact the labor board?

thank you very very much!


Asked on 6/24/11, 7:18 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

George Shers Law Offices of Georges H. Shers

It sounds like the guy is a crook trying to cover his trail. Since it is a franchise, it may be owned separately from the company, so you would have to speak to the owner, but the parent company still will be interested Report him to someone in high authority, pointing out how what he does will hurt the company.

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Answered on 6/25/11, 9:12 am
David Sarnoff Sarnoff + Sarnoff

While it is impossible to fully assess your legal rights without more information, it seems you may qualify as a whistleblower. California Labor Code section 1102.5, California's whistleblower statute, states it is unlawful for an employer to make a rule prohibiting an employee from disclosing information about working conditions to a government agency or retaliate against an employee for disclosing information to a government agency. An employer also cannot retaliate against an employee for refusing to engage in unlawful conduct.

Because you have not yet reported this conduct to the Labor Board, or any other government agency, that provision does not apply. However, it appears he is retaliating against you for refusing to engage in unlawful activity.

Moreover, if you actually go to the Labor Board and report his conduct, he cannot take any adverse action against you because you reported the conduct. If you legitimately believe that your boss is doing something unlawful, you have the right to report such conduct to a government agency.

If you feel you may need legal representation, feel free to visit my law firm's website, www.sarnofflaw.com, for more information and links to resources. In addition, there is a link to our Confidential Online Case Evaluation Questionnaire. That is the most efficient way to get us the information we would need to give you a more detailed initial evaluation.

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Answered on 6/26/11, 1:59 pm


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