Blackmailed by Your Boss? Know the Law.
[headline]”You’ll Never Work in This Town Again” – Hogwash[/headline]
California Labor Laws have been implemented to protect the employees’ rights against their current or former employers.
Unfortunately, even with these laws in place abuses happen to employees every day. These employees are systematically underpaid, overworked and then fired. Why would someone put up with this abuse rather than demand what is rightfully theirs by law? This is probably because they are unaware that the law has powerful protections built in.
Timing is everything-
Contrary to what you might think, if someone is at risk of losing their job they should immediately consult with a Labor Law attorney. If they have a legitimate claim they should act quickly. If the company then attempts to retaliate because the employee exercised his or her right to seek unpaid wages, the company is then at risk for substantial damages. In order to avoid incurring a loss from a retaliatory claim, the company usually will choose to act responsibly toward the employee.
Both State and Federal labor laws have strong protections built in to deal with employers who threaten employees for pursuing their rights. In addition there are new laws in California to protect you further.
A Los Angeles County jury on Nov. 2, 2010 awarded Richard Romney an 18-year veteran Los Angeles police officer, nearly $4 million in his case against the LAPD, concluding the officer was fired in retaliation for testifying against the department in a labor dispute. You can read the full story in the Los Angeles Times at“L.A. County jury awards $4 million to former LAPD officer”.
As far back as the early 1900’s the labor code recognized the disparity in power between employee and employer which gave rise to these strong protections built into the law.
California Government Code section 12940(h) provides that it is an unlawful employment practice “[f]or any employer, labor organization, employment agency, or person to discharge, expel, or otherwise discriminate against any person because the person has opposed any practices forbidden under this part or because the person has filed a complaint, testified, or assisted in any proceeding under this part.”
The Federal law under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) anti-retaliation provision makes it unlawful “to discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any employee because such employee has filed any complaint or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under [the FLSA] . . . .” 29 U.S.C. §215(a)(3).
Any employee, who is discharged, threatened with discharge, demoted, suspended, or in any manner discriminated and/or retaliated against in the terms and conditions of his or her employment for engaging in a “protected activity” is protected under the law.
Some examples of “protected activity” under the California Labor Code include:
1. Filing or threatening to file a claim or complaint with the Labor Commissioner.
2. Taking time off from work to serve on a jury or appear as a witness in court.
3. Disclosing or discussing your wages.
4. Using or attempting to use sick leave to attend to the illness of a child, parent, spouse, domestic partner, or child of the domestic partner of the employee.
5. Engaging in political activity of your choice.
6. For complaining about safety or health conditions or practices.
The following is a letter taken from an actual case warning an employer that it is at serious risk if it continues to engage in any action against our client that is retaliatory.
“Dear Mr. (Atty for Employer):
We have been advised by our client, JW (“John”), who is one of the named plaintiffs in connection with the above-entitled lawsuit, that he believes that XYZ , Inc. (the “Company”) intends to retaliate against him for being involved in this lawsuit.
The concern regarding retaliation first arose shortly after you were served with a copy of the lawsuit and no doubt provided a copy to the Company). John received a telephone call from Human Resources and attempted to obtain information from our client regarding the case, including, most ominously, who “instigated” the lawsuit. John replied that he did not feel comfortable discussing the case until he spoke to his attorney.
On the very next day, John was asked by his supervisor to train another technician. This appeared to John to be a poorly disguised attempt to mask the fact that Mike wanted Steve trained to do John’s job because the Company intended to terminate John.
Mr. X telephoned John again, but John was not available to take the phone call and X left a message to call him back. Several hours later, X again telephoned John and left another message that since John had not returned the earlier call and was not communicating with him, he was guilty of “insubordination”. After John received these messages, he did telephone X and advised X that his attorneys had advised him not to discuss the matter with him.
Based upon the above, we believe that the Company may be attempting to create “grounds” in order to either terminate John or take other adverse employment action against him, in retaliation for John’s participation in the lawsuit. Any such action taken against John on “pretextural” grounds (such as “insubordination”) would, of course, be unlawful. If the Company is foolish enough to engage in such conduct, we will immediately institute a lawsuit against it for wrongful termination and/or such other causes of action as may be appropriate. This, of course, will only exacerbate the situation and expose the Company to further damages, costs and expenses.
We request that you advise your client in the strongest possible terms that California law protects employees against retaliation for enforcing their legal rights. In this regard, it would also be helpful for you to advise your client not to discuss the case with any of our clients.”
If for any reason you think that you are owed unpaid wages but are concerned about retaliation it is important that you seek legal advice with a California Labor Law Attorney as soon as possible. It just may save your job.
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