I work as a waiter for a well known restaurant chain. I recently obtained copies of all my punch card records and found that my time records were illegally changed without my knowledge or consent. Those records also indicated that i was being paid less than other workers , yet, we had the same job title and were doing the same type of work. I am the only African American employee where I work. What do I do and what are my rights?
Tuvia KorobkinEmployment / Labor AttorneyBeverly Hills, CACA licensed ·
Contact an employment lawyer immediately. You have several potential claims based on the facts contained in your question. The most obvious claim would be any time card manipulation by your employer that resulted in your being paid less than what you were owed.
As for the discrimination claim, many more facts are needed to determine whether you might have a claim. For example, how long have you worked at the restaurant as compared with your colleagues? Are your colleagues being paid more for some other, non-discriminatory reason, e.g. are they working less desirable shifts for which the restaurant offers premium pay? Of course, if you are being paid less BECAUSE you are African-American, then you would have a claim for racial discrimination. But a thorough consultation with an employment lawyer is required to assess whether you have a claim.
Many employment lawyers take cases on contingency, meaning they do not charge any money up-front and simply receive a portion of whatever you recover in the case.
Good luck.
You have addressed many illegal actions including possible race discrimination and labor code violations. You should call a good employment law lawyer for a free consultation. Many lawyers will take your case on a contingency fee arrangement (you don't pay the attorney unless you win). This sounds like a great potential case.
Best of luck.
David Herman HirschState, Local, and Municipal Law AttorneySan Luis Obispo, CA ·
Unfortunately, this forum doesn't really function as a jobs bulletin board, so you may not get much in the way of a response to your post. You will have to take the initiative and contact attorneys to find one to represent you. You need to consult with an employment law attorney. Use the Find a Lawyer tab on . Also, here’s a link to the California Employment Lawyers Association website where you can search for an employment law attorney in your area. CELA attorneys specialize in representing employees and many offer free consultations. Best of luck to you.
http://www.cela.org/
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There is no such thing as an easy discrimination/class action case.
You might benefit from consulting with an experienced employment law attorney and having them evaluate your case. The California Employment Lawyers Association maintains a list of employment law attorneys who represent employees against employers. Follow the link to: www.cela.org.
What my colleagues mean when they say "there is no easy discrimination/class action case" is that there are far too many pieces to any case of any kind for a case to be "easy." This is especially true in employment law and other legal areas where the facts are usually complicated, developed over a long time, and will be vigorously disputed.
First, it isn't clear why you are mentioning class actions. For a case to be a class action, it must meet a a high standard of numerosity, commonality, typicality and adequacy. "Numerosity" means there are so many plaintiffs involved taht it would be impractical to sue separately. "Commonality" means there are common questions of law or fact shared by everyone in the plaintiff class. "Typicality" means that the claims of any class representative are typical of those of the members of the class. And "adequacy" means that any class representative will properly, adequately and fairly protect the interests of the class.
The opposing party will certainly dispute each of these factors. There are decades of court cases to interpret and many of the cases seem to contradict each other.
Also, the process from gathering enough information to file the lawsuit to getting the class certified by the court is often two or more years of intensive work. Usually, there will be tens of thousands of documents to analyze and categorize. After all that, if the court agrees the litigation should proceed as a class (and the court very often does not agree), then there are another couple years of litigation.
Most class actions quickly exceed $500,000 in attorney's fees and $100,000 in costs. Many are far, far more expensive than that.
The above is a great over-simplification of the process, but it ought to give you an idea that class actions are not "easy.
Now, if there is evidence that the employer was changing everyone's time records or many people's records, it may be appropriate to start looking into whether a class action makes sense.
Discrimination cases are difficult for another reason. The plaintiff must prove the defendant intended to discriminate. Proving what is inside someone's head is no easy task, especially when the defendant is denying any wrongdoing.
Regarding your time records: it is nearly always illegal for an employer to alter time records. And, when an employer does this, it is usually in an effort to avoid paying its employees in accordance with the law. So hang on to those time records and any evidence you have that shows the employer changed them. This could be very valuable evidence.
Regarding your pay rate: To prove unlawful discrimination, you must produce evidence that the reason you were treated differently and adversely was because of your membership in a protected group. If you believe you were paid less because of your race, you will have to rule out every other possible reason for the different treatment. As another attorney mentioned, you must compare your seniority, background, etc. with your co-workers. You must rule out that everyone else is a relative or friend of someone in management. You must rule out that the employer likes the way the other employees dress better than how you dress. You must rule out that you are not as good as the other employees. And you must rule out every other reason for the different treatment, so that the only thing left is that you were treated differently because of your race.
That said, if you have other evidence that supports race discrimination, you won't have to present as much evidence that there was no other reason. If there were comments made that were derogatory about your race, or even that indicate the employer had a heightened sensitivity to your race, that would go a long way toward proving the employer had an illegal motive. There may be other ways to show the employer's animus.
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It is unlawful to discriminate against an employee because of his/her race, etc. If the reason you are paid less is BECAUSE of your race or another characteristic of a protected class, you may have a good discrimination case if you can prove your claim. It is unlawful for an employer to falsify time cards and to pay an employee less than he/she has earned. If your wages were willfully withheld, you may be able to get the amount due plus up to 30 day's pay as waiting time penalties plus your employer "shall" pay your attorney. Call an employment law attorney to discuss. Many of us offer a free initial phone consultation.
