Help with employees' rights

The company I worked for (medium sized for profit Adult Day Health Care) went out of business “suddenly” without any notice a week ago. I use quotation marks because we have had nothing but trouble with our paychecks since the CA budget crisis this year (our revenue was based on Medi-Cal payments, and no we weren’t into any fraudulent activities, as far as I know). The building has been cleared out and padlocked. I am in Palm Springs, and the owners of the business were based in LA area. They own at least 3 or 4 other centers there that are making good profit currently. I’m ashamed to admit this, but I honestly don’t know how to contact them. Should I call my direct supervisor (who was suspiciously “on vacation” the week that we went belly up)? To her credit, she put a lot of her own money and time into the business to keep it going, so she’s probably in the same boat as the rest of us.

Here’s my question - none of us have been paid for our last week of work. What are the laws in regards to how quickly they must pay us? I realize I’ll probably never see the money, but a group of us want to do Something, and not just take this lying down.

Should we contact the Labor Board? Lawyers? Employee Development Dept.? Any and all input greatly appreciated, just be gentle with me cuz this really sucks.

Sorry to hear about your situation.

Assuming you’re not unionized, it would be nice to know your rights before you speak with anyone at the company, just in case they want to get you to agree to something. A local employment lawyer can probably answer a lot of your questions. You should be able to find one that will chat with you initially for free. Just google “Palm Springs Employment Law” and call around. On the other hand, if all that is at stake if one week’s check, it might not be worth your time.

Actually something as small as a weeks pay (for a bunch of employees), might be perfect for your local bar association. They’d probably have a bunch of law students (some leaning towards labor law) that would love to take a look at the case.

I honestly don’t know how that works though. I don’t know if they can act as your lawyer or simply tell you what your rights are and point you in the right direction.

I just meant that it might not be worth spending the time to figure out his rights before just taking to his supervisor who likely knows the skinny. It would just be the most prudent thing.

That’s very true. I was just thinking that bar associations are usually free (at least to talk to). But yeah, start with your supervisor.

CA has a fairly effective State EDD. Try them.

I would send a certified letter to the owners and the other locations, but still file a complaint with the State while doing that.

I beleive they only have something like two weeks to pay you, in situations like this. IANAL.

The proper California administrative department is The Department of Industrial Relations/Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. EDD won’t do squat for this situation. DLSE, however, will be helpful. :slight_smile: