California wage and hour attorney

Restaurant Workers Fight for More Rights and Better Conditions

March 1, 2016 | by Nassiri Law

A restaurant worker can make a pretty good living if he or she can find at job at the right location. However, as it turns out, most workers are having a tough time finding a sweet spot.

According to a recent news article from the New York Times, the vast majority of food service workers (millions) are still living in poverty, despite working for many hours a week. Further, they are often mistreated by their employers.

The owner of several popular restaurants in New York and in sporting event venues across the country is trying to do his part to change this, but the way he is going about it is to do away with tipping at his establishments. He says that every employee should be paid a decent wage, and this will help to fight what is known as income inequality. Continue Reading ›

New Football Stadium Jobs Promise Might Not Be as Good as Advertised

February 21, 2016 | by Nassiri Law

There has been a lot of news coverage about the Rams moving to Los Angeles and about the new L.A. Rams Stadium. According to a recent news feature from the Los Angles Times, those in support of building the new stadium with taxpayer dollars said that the project would create nearly 10,500 full-time and part-time jobs. This number is not supposed to include the many construction jobs that will be created as the new stadium is being built.

However, some think that these promises of new jobs are not all they are cracked up to be. A recent lawsuit was filed against the company that has a contract to sell all concessions at Levi’s Stadium. Levi’s Stadium is located in Santa Clara and is the stadium where the Super Bowl was just held. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the many low-income workers who accuse their employer of regularly committing labor law violations and taking advantage of them. Continue Reading ›

Arbitration Mandatory for California Truck Driver Wage Disputes

January 29, 2016 | by Nassiri Law

According to recent news feature from HR.BLR.com, a California employer operates a shipping, distribution, and warehousing business at ports in Southern California, including Los Angeles and Long Beach. The company accepts the shipments at the docks, stores the merchandise, and then has its drivers deliver the goods throughout the state of California.

The California employer hires a number of drivers who they classify as independent contractors. Many of these so-called independent contractors filed claims with the Labor commissioner for the state of California pertaining to wage disputes. In response to the claims, employer filed a motion with the court to make the drivers handles their wage disputes in arbitration rather than with the court. Continue Reading ›

One Wage for Restaurant Workers

January 27, 2016 | by Nassiri Law

If you have never waited tables, you probably do not understand how servers get paid and why tips are very important. In 43 states in the nation, restaurant workers get paid far less than minimum. While the federal minimum wage is $7.25, an employee at restaurant waiting tables probably makes around two dollars and change per hour.

As the worker goes through the day, he or she serves people and gets tips. At the end of a shift, a worker goes into the manager’s office with his or book. The manager tells the server how much money they owe the house for the day, and whatever is left over (tips) the server keeps. However, before he or she can leave, the server must “tip out” other people, like bartenders who make the drinks, bussers, bar backs, hosts and hostesses, and server assistants. This is based on a percentage in sales. Continue Reading ›

Palacio v. Jan & Gail’s Care Homes: A right to Meal Breaks for CA Employees

December 11, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

In Palacio v. Jan & Gail’s Care Homes, plaintiff was employed at defendant’s 24-hour residential care facility for developmentally disabled individuals. Defendant owned and operated six of these facilities and employed just less than 50 workers at any given time. There are numerous shifts for workers, so the facility can remain open for 24 hours. The shifts range in length from four hours to ten hours, and some are for part-time workers and others are for full-time employees.

Healthcare regulations in California require these centers to have staff on duty 24 hours a day to provide immediate care to the patients, so they are protected from illness, injury, fire, and any other kind of emergency that may arise at any give time throughout the day or night. One of the ways in which this is accomplished is by the center requiring employees who have direct patient care to work during meal periods. They are told when they are hired that they will be required to each lunch with the residents, and they will be given a free meal that is the same food as provided to the residents. Continue Reading ›

A Look at Workers’ Satisfaction in Los Angeles

October 6, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

According to a recent news article from Los Angeles Weekly, more than 50 percent of millennials living and working in the Los Angeles area are not happy with their jobs. The article is focusing on college grads, who spent a great deal of money getting a college education and now have hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt and are working jobs they don’t like.

A recent report from UCLA’s Labor Center focusing on young workers in Los Angeles states that nearly 60 percent of workers between age 18 and age 29 are forced to take low-wage positions. In this particular study, UCLA defines low wage in the Los Angles area as $13.38 per hour. The study also defined millennials as anyone born in the first half of 1980 or born in the following 20 birth years. This is somewhat different that the standard definition of the generation, which includes people born later than 2000. The study has also determined that around two-thirds of Los Angeles’ workers in this target age group are Latino. Continue Reading ›

California Gov. Expected to Sign New Equal Pay Legislation

September 28, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

As much as people like to believe there is equality in the workplace, equal pay for equal work is still much more an ideal than reality. While the gender gap is smaller than it once was, the fact is many women make less than male employees who would be in the same exact position. Even though this is illegal and in violation of California labor laws, some of the existing laws do not have strong enough penalties or enforcement mechanisms in place to end gender-based wage discrimination once and for all.

However, according to a recent news article from ABC, California Governor Jerry Brown is expected to sign a new bill that will expand the already existing fair pay legislation that is on the books. The package of new laws includes additional protection for women from retaliation if they inquire about how much other employees are earning. This was often treated as almost a taboo practice where you do not ask what others are earning in the company because this could lead to anger among the workforce. However, the reality of the situation was that by not asking about how much other employees are making, the employer is getting away with paying a woman less money for doing the same job as a man. Continue Reading ›

A Look at How a Hike in Minimum Wage Affects Workers

September 23, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

It should come as a surprise to nobody that anyone working for minimum wage in Los Angeles would likely welcome an increase in the city’s minimum wage or an increase in the state minimum wage to a rate above what the city currently mandates.

However, as one might also expect, many employers and business associations are against a hike in the local or statewide minimum wage rates, arguing that increasing the minimum wage would harm workers. While it is obvious they are more concerned about their own profitability that their employees’ well-being, according to a recent news article from the Los Angeles Times, some economists don’t know what effect a raise would have on workers. Continue Reading ›

Recent Change to California Employment Law

September 5, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

While some aspects of the law and legal doctrine date back more than 1,000 years ago, when empires were fighting each other in Western Europe, a good portion of our laws and our legal system are constantly evolving based upon the will of the people and the actions of legislative bodies.

For this reason, is it important to review all recent changes to the law from time-to-time. A news article from The National Law Review takes a look at recent changes to employment law in the state of California. One of the recent changes was that the word “alien” has been removed from the California Labor Code. Continue Reading ›

U.S. Court of Appeals Agrees with Home Health Workers

August 31, 2015 | by Nassiri Law

According to a recent article from California Healthline, The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has issued an opinion granting home healthcare workers the right to overtime pay and no less than the prevailing minimum wage.

The decision paves the way for officials in the state of California to go ahead with a law passed last year allowing overtime pay for workers in the In-Home Supportive Services program throughout the state. This law was on hold pending this recent decision from the federal appeals court in Washington, DC. Continue Reading ›