Are you searching for a law firm with extensive experience and a proven track record of success defending California wage and hour violations? The number of wage and hour disputes and PAGA actions against employers in San Diego and across California has increased substantially each of the past several years.  The key to these cases is immediate action to remediate or mitigate exposure to take the incentive away from plaintiff’s attorneys to pursue the case.

A Look At the Numbers

According to the US Department of Labor (DOL) 70% of companies in the US violate wage and hour laws and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in one way or another.  While the largest number of wage and hour violations under the FLSA are associated with minimum wage violations, more than 80% of the back wages assessed to employers by the DOL over the past 3 years related to overtime violations alone.

This would explain the 3-fold jump in the number of wage and hour lawsuits filed in California over the past few years.  The employer defense and business general counsel attorneys at the Watkins Firm can help to protect your company and reduce or eliminate your risk for a wage and hour dispute or lawsuit.

Here in California, workers file claims for nonpayment of wages, overtime or vacation pay under California Labor Code sections 96 and 98.  The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) “adjudicates” these claims on behalf of the employee and hold “informal conferences” between the employer and employee(s) in order to resolve the dispute.  There is nothing informal about these hearings and the goal is simple: get you to write a check.

If you have been contacted by the Labor Department or DLSE regarding a wage and hour violation you need the experience and proven defense provided by the Watkins Firm.  We establish the chronology of the case, organize the facts and information to mount a strong defense and represent you in Administrative Court when it is in your best interests to do so.

Defending San Diego Wage and Hour Violations

The Watkins Firm has more than four decades of experience defending San Diego wage and hour violations.  Employers should ensure these practices to avoid allegations of wage and hour violations:

• Workers are properly classified as exempt or nonexempt (eligible for overtime pay or not)
• Independent contractors are properly classified (many existing independent contractors or 1099 workers should actually be “employees” according to new guidelines resulting from a recent US Supreme Court Case.
• Workers receive proper payment for all overtime hours worked, as well as appropriate breaks, rest times and meals.
• Nonexempt workers do not have access to company systems after hours such as e-mail, voicemail and internal systems.  This prevents claims of “I had to work nights and weekends to complete my work and they never paid me the overtime.”  Company systems, sent e-mails and cell phone usage for company business after hours is easily proven in unpaid overtime lawsuits.
• Policies and procedures and employee handbooks are comprehensive, consistently applied and well documented
• Disciplinary actions including docking the pay of salaried employees and appropriate measures for those who work unauthorized overtime
• FMLA abuse is carefully documented and associated discipline is warranted and evenly applied
• Your employment practices and physical facilities are compliant with ADA laws and regulations

Pro-Tip: “The Private Attorneys General Act has been around for a long time. It is sort of a catch all.  If you want to, you can bring an action as if you were the Attorney General for the State of California on behalf of Californians and sue somebody. And it’s been used in a lot of different ways. It’s also been used in something called Qui Tam, which is a Latin term for, to bring in an action on behalf of other parties. And that happens in different types of actions and these kind of actions are all around the United States. So they’re old and they’ve been used for different types of grievances throughout the history of the State of California.

But right now they’re being used on behalf of employees. And when you do so you share some of the money with the State of California, and then you also get money for your clients and the state wins some money and they don’t have to pay their own Attorney General to do it. And also your employees get money and some more rights where as a regular class action might be more difficult for a plaintiff to bring, but in a regular class action, you don’t have to pay the state.

We represent employers. So we’re always trying to do whatever we can to help our clients when it comes to this threat, which is active. And basically there’s a lot of plaintiff’s lawyers out there treating themselves as bounty hunters and going after these companies. You have to make sure you’re fair to the people that are part of the class. So it’s very complicated and how you handle it in the beginning and throughout the case is important. You can’t just hire a lawyer to go out there and be really aggressive and expect a great result. All you’re going to end up with is a higher bill and higher risk, and nobody being scared away.

Typically it’s wage an hour wage an hour, and everything that goes with that reporting classification, whether you are getting proper rest time, meal time, any possible technical failure by the employer and how they treat the employees can end up as a PAGA violation. think that failure to act immediately is the biggest risk. You get a claim, you get a letter, you get a notice and you don’t take action right away. That’s your opportunity to cure, fix and get out of the way of the PAGA case. The lawyers who are hoping to sue you don’t make any money if you act quickly, but if you delay and push back or ignore them, then they gain bigger rights and more motivation.

Everybody knows about class certification. You can’t have a class and you have, unless you have like people in a like situation that have suffered the same harm. And a lot of times plaintiff lawyers will try to group everyone together in hopes of getting the judge a certified, so that it’s assumed that everyone has suffered the same harm. And most employers don’t treat each employee the same. I mean, they’re all individually hired and contracted for. And sometimes the problems that are being alleged are not universal. So we want to fight that right away.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

Employer Defense in Southern California and San Diego Wage and Hour Cases

The Watkins Firm have more than four decades of experience defending San Diego wage and hour violations and work to keep our clients ahead of the curve.  We provide advice and counsel regarding policies and procedures, employee handbooks, and all internal documentation and employee-related practices.

If the US Department of Labor is right, and 70% of companies in the US violate wage and hour laws in one way or another then the majority of California’s employers carry substantial risk.  Protect yourself.  We invite you to review our Podcast Episode 26- Wage and Hour Employer Updates for 2023 as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.