Employee Class Action
Our law firm is eager to take on new wage and hour class actions against employers.
There are, however, several preliminary issues before a wage and hour class action can be filed. First, did the employee sign a binding arbitration agreement? If the employee has agreed to binding arbitration they have given up their rights to bring a class action as well as any action in court. They will have to bring their case in arbitration. In arbitration we might be able to file what is called a PAGA, Private Attorney General Act lawsuit to recover penalties for you and the employees who are similarly situated in terms of the wage violations. PAGA actions are not class actions, but they do allow one employee to recover penalties on behalf of their coworkers who suffered the same wage practices.
Presuming the employee has not signed a valid binding arbitration agreement, the next question is are there enough people for a class action. The criteria is based upon the statutory period. Wage and hour cases typically have four year statutes of limitation. The question is how many employees experienced similar treatment within the four year period; not how many employees work at the company at once. Some Federal cases have allowed class actions for 40-some employees. We would like to see at least 50 employees if not closer to 100 for a class action. Numerosity is one of the requirements for a class action.
If a binding arbitration agreement has not been signed and there are numerous people with the same violations the case might be a good candidate for class action status. There are still issues about how easy it is to prove the wage violation happened in a systematic fashion. Those are questions class action lawyer, Karl Gerber, would be happy to discuss with you if you call 877-525-0700.
EMPLOYMENT CLASS ACTION LAWYER
Although the chance of a lawyer being paid a decent hourly rate increases if the case is filed as a class action, there are several concerns our firm feels are ethical issues. Other class action firms do not necessarily agree and are eager to get potential clients to sign-on as class representatives when it might be better for them to pursue their claims individually. The basic issue is how much is the employee owed? If the employee is owed a relatively small amount of money, or the penalties are greater than what is owed class action status is the way to go. Realistically, a competent wage and hour lawyer is not going to take a case for a few thousand in unpaid wages. Those cases should be brought in small claims court, or with a Department of Labor Standards Enforcement which is an administrative agency in which an employee can attempt to collect a small amount of wages from their employer without an attorney.
Employees owed large amounts of money, sums over $30,000 need to consider whether it is in their interest to file a class action. However, $30,000 is not a particularly large sum to attract a lawyer on a contingency. The amount of work involved in recovering $30,000 does not justify hundreds of thousands of dollars of lawyer time or up to $30,000 to prove $30,000 is due. Although the lawyer might work on a contingency, a lawyer cannot afford to hope to earn $50-100 an hour on a contingency. A few employees owed $30,000 are more likely to generate the interest of a serious wage and hour lawyer, but not all. There are, however, some wage and hour cases where employees are owed more than $100,000 a piece. Those cases should be handled individually. It is unlikely the employee will get the same type of settlement if they file a class action. Private Attorney General (PAGA) penalties should be filed in actions involving large amounts of wages and smaller amounts of wages. PAGA penalties motivate settlement, and create larger individual recoveries if there is not a settlement. Contact Karl Gerber, a leading PAGA lawyer and find out why at 1-877-525-0700.
UNPAID WAGES
There are many varieties of unpaid wages our wage attorneys sue for. Unpaid wage cases are not only for hourly employees who are owed overtime, or their hours were shorted. The number of California Labor Codes pertaining to hourly employees, however, are substantial. The failure to properly pay an hourly employee or to allow them to take meal and rest breaks creates many violations.
The more unusual unpaid wage lawsuits involve stock options and mandatory bonuses. Discretionary bonuses are not the best things to sue for. Commissions also come up in unpaid wage cases. In California, commission agreements must be in writing. If they are not in writing, we can still help. We may be able to prove the entitlement to commissions through prior practice, procedure, and emails. Commission disputes can be quite large. Our lead wage lawyer, Karl Gerber’s largest settlement for wages was a settlement in a commission dispute that would be worth more than $1,600,000 today.
The best thing to do is to contact our law firm to discuss your unpaid wage situation. We will give you the best advice about what you should do. We will consider your best interests. We will put your best interests above ours in giving the best advice. We understand how the system works, and we know the law. These tools, coupled with ethics, are essential. Most wage and hour law firms are only in it for the money. It is a practice area that attracts lawyers like that. Our lawyers are entirely focused on doing what is right for the individual. The Employment Lawyers Group has been around longer than the field of wage and hour lawsuits. Our morals are rooted on individual representation, employee representation, and eradicating workplace abuses. Unpaid wages are one workplace abuses. We are here to serve the individual client, or groups of clients.
Our wage and hour results include:
$1,150,000 for unpaid commissions
$800,000 for being on controlled standby and being misclassified as independent contractors not paid overtime
$750,000 for sub-minimum wage pay for a class of employees
$450,000 for being on controlled standby
$450,000 for paystub https://employeelawca.com/pay-stub-lawyer violations
$400,000 won for off-the-clock work for 5 employees
$360,000 for overtime and PAGA penalties
$350,000 for paystub violations and prevailing wage
$350,000 for being on controlled standby and mis-classified as an independent contractor
$250,000 for PAGA penalties
GO WITH THE ETHICAL LAW FIRM
CALL US AT 877-525-0700