Helping to make employment fair for everyone.

If your employer has been breaking wage and hour laws, and not paying you overtime, or having you work off the clock, etc., you may have a valid class action lawsuit to recover damages and lost wages.

Dworken & Bernstein Co., L.P.A. is a leader in individual and collective actions for violations of state and federal wage and hour laws. We have successfully represented current and former employees to recover overtime wages and other uncompensated pay or benefits.

A startling number of well-known companies (Farmers Insurance, Allstate Corporation, Pacific Bell, Coca-Cola, UPS) have recently been caught violating wage laws, and paid employees millions of dollars in overtime and other wrongfully unpaid wages.

For example, many companies fail to pay their employees overtime compensation in accordance with law. These companies misclassify employees as either independent contractors or “exempt”. However, an employee’s title is not relevant to whether the employee’s primary duties are hourly work. Even employees with the title of supervisor, manager, or exempt must be paid overtime for all hours worked over 40 hours if their primary duties are hourly work. Similarly, the fact that an employee’s wages are labeled a ‘salary’, even when paid in a fixed amount, does not automatically mean they are not entitled to overtime. Many companies dock employees’ salaries for missed work, inadequate sales, or overpaid commissions, that destroys the exemption and requires the employee to be paid overtime for all hours worked over 40.

Other common wage violations requiring companies to pay workers back pay or overtime include not paying for time worked off the clock; awarding “comp time” instead of paying for overtime (meaning the employer carries-over hours from one week to the next to avoid paying overtime); refusing to pay employees who work during breaks; failing to pay for time spent for travel; failing to pay for time spent preparing for work, or waiting to punch-in; failing to pay for time spent ‘donning or doffing’ (i.e. putting on or removing uniforms, equipment, etc, required for the job).

In most wage and hour violations, the law allows compensation retroactive for two or three years and often the award to the worker is doubled (known as ‘liquidated damages’). If you want to see if your rights have been violated, please contact the wage and hour attorneys of Dworken & Bernstein Co., L.P.A. We will speak with you to discuss your rights and determine how we can help you and others. Fill out the questionnaire and we will call you about your wage and hour rights.