I worked for a company for a year. I was not allowed lunch breaks, never paid extra for overtime, and no taxes were taken from my paycheck even though I was a regular employee. I am familiar with that definition in my state. Should I pursue this or let it go? I am asking this in general, not my specific circumstances. It concerns all the employees at the company.
[ul]
[li]How long ago was this?[/li][li] How much money are we talking about?[/li][li]Has their failure to take out taxes negatively impacted you with your state tax folks? The IRS? Social Security?[/li][li] How many employees involved?[/li][li] Are you the only one considering raising the issue?[/li][li] Does the company still exist and is doing business?[/li][li] If the company is still doing business is there evidence (witnesses) is the problem still occurring?[/li][/ul]
This is a matter of opinion, but if your sweatshop – I mean employer – was indeed blatantly violating labor laws, they should be held accountable for their actions.
Get a lawyer. I’m currently suing a previous employer for $10,000 simply because he made me work about twenty shifts over the course of about a year without giving me a half hour break, and it looks like I have a pretty good shot at winning. Why pass up practically free money?
Yeah, let him take a slide—down the razor blade of life.
And this is what is wrong with this country—“Hey, why not sue, it’s free money, right?” Not to justify your employer’s actions, but he “forced” you? For “a year”? Please. why didn’t you just stand up for yourself after a w few weeks of his mistreatment of you? You go along with it and now seek a windfall by having the courts man up for you. :roll eyes:
By the way, GD seems to be a better place for this.
On the list of things wrong with the country, I would put “people thinking they are above the law” as being a more serious problem than “people who may put up with that crap for a short period of time.”
Yeah, why can’t this country be more like China?
Yes, employers can “force” you to put up with all kinds of crap, especially if you need the paycheck and fear losing your job. It’s called breaking the law. You are aware that courts are overflowing with cases where people have, in fact, broken the law, right? It happens. Wander over to the epic bazillion-page Workplace Griping thread in the Pit if you don’t believe me.
Employers like this are why we have employment law, and employment lawyers.
Of course the OP should go after the employer. My question is, what is wrong with people who let this shit slide past the first infraction? Paycheck arrives, no overtime for the week I worked 50 hours - I ask, “where’s my time-and-a-half?” Whatever excuse there may be, the only correct response is, “It’s okay. I’ll have a seat here and wait until you cut me the corrected check while I have the state on dial here on my phone. Thanks.”
I am constantly dumbfounded by people who don’t know their employment rights, and don’t call their employers on it the second it happens. Sometimes it really is an oversight, or the result of fast growth for which the person cutting the checks needs to get up to speed on new required policies for the size the company is becoming. Sometimes it really is a slimy employer who thinks they can get away with stuff because their employees let them.
Worker’s Compensation is an example. I know someone, who I’m still mad at about it, who got hurt on the job. Instead of reporting the injury and going to the urgent care place where the employer has an account, and getting the routine treatment for which this injury is common, what does she do? Waits. Because she doesn’t have insurance. So, a week later, when she can’t ignore the inevitable infection that resulted, she reports the injury and discovers what? She doesn’t need fucking insurance! On the job injuries are covered by the employer under what? Worker’s Compensation! Duh, Duh, Dummyhead. So instead of a quick trip to the Worker’s Comp Urgent Care office, she gets to stay at the hospital - for a week - with a drain in her hand and IV antibiotics. A $6,000 expense rather than $200, plus her work area had to scramble to cover her shifts. Stupid woman.
I can’t believe I’m still so mad at her about that.
Exempt vs. Non-Exempt status is important here. I’m technically a “40 hr/week” employee, but am expected to work a minimum of ~115% of that on client-billable work, plus doing the mundane administrivia. That works out to a heck of a lot more than 40/week. But I’m Exempt, which means there is no such thing as “worker’s rights” in that regard. I’m cool with it - I understand how the model works (and sometimes, when you’re on “the bench,” you’re getting paid for nothing).
But if this was an hourly wage Non-Exempt position, you’ve got a right to raise a stink.
Yeah, why didn’t they just go down to the free jobs store and get another job!
Oh right…
You should pursue it because your (former I hope) employer is not just ripping you off, they are ripping off all the workers. Not only that, by not reporting you are giving them an advantage over companies that respect the laws and thus have higher costs.
Not reporting taxes is a federal offense, by the way.
Because the reply could be, “Here is your 15 hours worth of pay and you’re fired.”
However the employer is also not taking taxes out - and not paying payroll taxes, I expect. So unless the OP is a contractor - which seems doubtful - the employer is breaking the law no matter what status the OP has. Even worse, if no stink is raised, the OP may be liable for self-employment tax.
OP, have you gotten 1099s from this place, or nothing?
I am yet again dumbfounded that people have no idea that many people are actually salves to their jobs due to circumstances and may not be able to find ANY other job for a year or more until something changes. Perhaps they live in a rural area and have court ordered child support. Would you rather see that person quit their job on principle and let the child become a ward of the state? People would then be ranting about the deadbeat dad. Perhaps some people who do not seek treatments for work related injuries have seen people downsized after doing so and feared losing their much needed job.
Will reply later here and by PM. In addition I was promised a specific raise after 6 months. This is documented and recorded. When I ASKED about it the owner threatened to fire me for ASKING! Now you see what I was up against. I had complete unsupervised access to a fleet of yachts over $2million. It was a fun job, until it wasn’t!
I’m pretty sure this isn’t illegal, just jerkish. They get to break promises about raises, and employers can fire anyone for any reason except certain protected categories (race, age, etc.).
It’s not free money. It is money he earned but was not paid. So now he uses the legal system. He could go and kick the boss’ ass I guess.
And then a week later you get fired for being 1 minute late back from your lunch. And the company fights unemployment because they fired you for cause.
Realistically, employers have a huge amount of power over employees, especially in this economy. Most people are working for their livelihoods and rely on that regular check or otherwise will end up in dire straits. Knowing you can get the money back, maybe, a year from now, after spending lots of money on lawyers isn’t really all that helpful compared to having money right now for things like food.
That said, OP, you certainly have a genuine beef and I’d consider hiring a lawyer. They sound like tax cheats and worse.
In CA it is legal to fire an employee for no reason. But there are plenty of reasons that are not legal. I have already won a case for $200k and I’d be happy to PM the details. It was against a famous person in OC. He founded one of the largest companies in the area. I took many risks in pursuing this including threats on my life. Would a book about this be interesting?