Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Maryland
commission never paid
for almost i worked as a retail manager at a local store of a national corporation. for at least the last 6 months, my company went into a partnership agreement with another well-known national company. in exchange for us selling their product they would pay us a commission for a flat fee, which we were told in writing from this national chain. we were to receive a specific about of money with each pay check. this only happened once and it was for either alot less or in some cases not at all what was initially told to us. with some obvious complaining, we were then told that their was some problems which would be worked out soon... well, it hasn't and it's been months... i think they owe me at least $300, and my store alone employed 15 people... their are thousands of people getting knocked out of their money and we want to know what we can do...
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: commission never paid
Failue to pay wages (including commissions) when due is likely a breach of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (depending on the size of the company and other factors) and may also violate state and local wage payment laws. Under the Federal law, and many states laws, failure to pay wages when due can lead to punitivie damages in the form of double and sometimes triple damages, plus attorneys' fees.
Of course, such failure is also a traditional breach of contract as well.
You should talk to an employment attorney to see about your situation and those of others at your company.
Please feel free to call if you would like to chat.
Lawrence R. Holzman, Esquire
Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A.
6404 Ivy Lane, Suite 400
Greenbelt, MD 20770
(301) 220-2200
fax (301) 220-1214
Disclaimer: Please note that the posting of this response is not intended to constitute legal advice. You should contact an attorney to obtain information applicable to your situation. This posting is not confidential or privileged and does not create an attorney/client relationship.
Re: commission never paid
Lawguru just posted your April message. You and your co-workers have a claim in contract for your wages and commissions, and potentially in fraud as well. There are two ways to recover. Each person individually can bring a claim under the small claims procedure in a Maryland state District Court. But, this tends to be very time consuming, and once you get a judgment, you would still have to collect on it through still more court proceedings. The second way is for one or more people to bring a class action. This would most likely be done in a Maryland Circuit Court. Maryland has a statute that lets people put their claims together to meet the minimum money amount necessary to bring a claim in the Circuit Court, in a class action. Maryland court rules guide how a class action is brought. We would be glad to talk further with you about this; please respond by e-mail to [email protected] or by phone to 410-783-5795, or out of the local calling area, to 800-537-6930.
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