California Law Question

System

An employee is working as a mechanic in a small, privately-owned company since October 2001. He is a family member, which should not necessarily make a difference to any of his employment conditions, but due to animosity by the owner, he is being treated less than fairly since he started working there. They hired him on with a verbal agreement of his pay and work schedule. After two weeks of working, they suddenly dropped his pay rate without ever speaking with him about it. When he questioned them, they told him that since he is not working at the speed they wanted him to, and since he is not truly doing mechanic work (they have never allowed him to do mechanic work, always finding an excuse without ever seeing what he is capable of doing), they decided to cut his pay by $2.00 per hour, without even warning him.

He was not paid for any holidays so far either, Thanksgiving nor Christmas, and other long-term employees were paid. They also started telling him that if they don't want him to work on some days, they will simply cut his hours short during any weeks they feel like doing so.

I realize that this is a private company, but doesn't California have some strict regulations regarding wages/holiday pay etc. that should prevent these employers from doing all this to this person??

Please advise.

Thanks,
Ana

Hatchetman

Since I am not a lawyer, I can only address your question as I understand it as a human resources administrator. in California.

California law (and regulations) do not require that an employer maintain a minimum number of hours of work per week for employees. The only requirement in terms of minimums is that the employer must pay at least minimum wage, which in California is now $6.75 per hour. In addition, in some cities and counties, local goverments have enacted "living wage" provisions, which may rquire higher rates of pay than the state's minimum wage.

Consequently, the employer is free to adjust the employee's work schedule or even lower the rate of pay (as long as it doesn't drop below minimum or "living" wage rate). Of course, if there is a contract of some kind, then that would be controlling. Since the company, you say is small and family-owned, I supsect that there is no policy manual or anything that could arguably create some form of "expectation-setting" related to a "guaranteed rate of pay." If there is, then the employee may want to consult legal counsel well-versed in California employment law to see if anything can be resolved on a legal basis.

Gillian

I'm also in California. You are correct in that California is pretty protective of employees, but not to the point where a person can't schedule their employees to fit their business needs. If there is no work, there is no obligation to make some. Nor is there a regulation saying that pay cannot be cut. Absent some sort of contract the employer can cut pay. If there is a solid verbal contract here, a contract might exist. This person would have to contact an attorney to make that evaluation. There is some inkling of other problems in your description. There may be a contractual one in terms of holidays if, in practice, they have been provided. Further, it is my non-attorney opinion that if holidays are contractual, the pay should be treated as wages and if not paid in a timely manner, a penalty of one day's pay for each day that the employer is late (up to 30 days) might be imposed if a wage claim is filed. If this person is being sent home after reporting to work there is an obligation to pay the person one half of their scheduled hours but not less than two hours. Another common wage related issue in California is vacation. Use it or lose it policies are illegal - vacation vests as it is earned. An employer either has to let the person take vacation or pay it off, either at some specific point (end of year, etc) or when the person leaves the company. A company does get to decide what vacation policies are, including defining who gets vacation, but if this person falls under the policy, then it can't be lost.

Carol CA

I am not a lawyer either, but I do work in California. Where I see your big problem is in the inconsistency of the treatment. If all other employees receive holiday pay and this employee does not, he could have a good case of discrimination. Certainly a good case to complain to the wage & hour division. Similarly, if he is the only one who is being sent home early and every else gets to work a full 8 hours there may be problems - especially if this person is in a protected class. Although employers have the right to set their own holiday schedules, work schedules, pay ranges, etc., they need to be consistent in the administration for all employees.

Rockie

I work in South Carolina, but whenever there is an adverse employment action, employees have to be given a seven day notice. If not,they have a Wage & Hour case. There seems to be no real employment guidelines in place in this situation, such as a letter of hire, agreement of wages, work hours, etc.
I can see where this company could be in a lot of trouble with Wage & Hour for not following proper hiring and notification procedures alone.

I am assuming that California has some of the same type of guidelines in place.

System

Thank you all for replying to my question. I really appreciate the insightful answers, and upon doing my own research through the California State DOL division, I did pretty much find that what you all posted re California labor laws was true.

To give you an update on the situation...The employee found a better job with a much bigger company, so he resigned his position and he started yesterday at his new company, which is much more organized in every way with regards to new hires and everything else that goes along with running an efficient company. His old company did have enough sense to obey the law by promptly paying him what they owed him, and his exit was smooth and without incident.

Thanks again for all your help.

Ana