Do I have a legal case? Employer retaliation, meal break violations, demands.. CA?
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Do I have a legal case? Employer retaliation, meal break violations, demands.. CA?
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OK, here's the deal. Basically, I need to either know what steps I should take, or if I have a legal case.
I work for a hospital. My manager has received complaints from around our hospital. Her superior met with her last week and she was put on a performance improvement plan (this is what I know from reliable sources). She responded by punishing the whole department!
She pulled us all into a mandatory staff meeting on Monday, with a list of demands that she read from. She did not allow us to speak, only said that she would be happy to meet with us at a later time if we had questions. She changed our otherwise flexible lunchtime to "everyone takes lunch at 12:00 and we close the office". The problem is, I come in at 6:00am to 2:30pm, so that leaves me 6 hours with no lunch break.
She also said that she was going to assign break times and just barely did that today (Wed). I haven't taken a break in two days other than my lunch because I was afraid of going against her letter and being fired. At the end of her manifesto, she says that if we cannot comply with her demands, the organization will give us a fair reference to an external or internal employer. So all of us are in fear of our job if we don't follow her letter to the T! She changes some of her letter, in person, but refuses to put it in writing.
Some of her other demands are: She also wants us to report out our projects every Friday, all meetings and projects will now need to be approved by her first, etc. etc.
It is clear that she is angry about the recent complaints against her and choosing to retaliate against the whole department. The worst part about it is that for two days, I went without breaks and no meal period for 6 hours. I am an 8 hour employee. Today, she rectified the situation by assigning break times to the department and telling us that we can fill out forms to be paid for the breaks we did not take. The company says it will not compensate me for going to lunch after the 6th hour. Is this legal? I would love for an attorney to review her manifesto for the legalities of it, and advise as to whether I should pursue a case.
The other sidenote is that her superior went on vacation the day after her meeting with her, so she's doing all of this on the sly. She included an HR rep in her meeting with us; however, the HR rep had NO idea of what she was sitting in on. She completely blindsided her. I have a feeling that she is going to get her just desserts, but in the meantime, do I have a case? And can I sue or file a complaint even though I still work there? Can I expect to continue working there and be treated fairly if I've sued the company?
Thanks so much in advance!
Additional Details
PS - when her boss received the initial complaints, she held us all in seperate 15 min meetings to investigate. We were truthful and candid about the goings on in the dept. As a result, she was put on a performance plan. All of our conversations were supposed to stay confidential. I believe my boss is assuming that we made the complaints as well, and taking it out on us.
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Shane
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You can file a formal complaint with your states Department of Labor and I would also formally report this in writing to your HR department. The fact that she is refusing to put in writing some of her new directives indicate to me this is not what she was told to do when she was reprimanded. When her boss returns I would report the new happenings to him/her. Insofar as your state laws regarding breaks is as follows:
For all employees working 5 hours or more consecutively, California state law stipulates that a meal period of 30 minutes or more must be provided. This does not apply if the total work per day of the employee is six hours or less and the right to take a meal break is mutually waived by both the worker and the employer. A second meal period of 30 minutes or more is required if the employee works 10 hours or more. This may again be mutually waived if the total working time for the day is less than 12 hours and only if the first meal period was not waived.
This 30 minute meal break may generally be unpaid, but only if the employee is completely relieved of his or her duties. If the worker must do any job duties during the meal break, or even if employees are required to stay on the job site during the break, it must instead be a paid meal break. An exception to this rule is sometimes found in situations where it is not practical for a worker to be completely relieved of his or her duties – for example, in the case of a gas station employee working the night shift alone. An “on-duty” meal period may be unpaid if both the employer and the employee agree to it in writing.
California law also mandates paid rest periods for non-exempt workers (paid hourly and not salaried). For each four hour work period or “significant fraction thereof” (usually considered anything over two hours), a worker must be given a ten minute paid rest period. If an employee works less than three and a half hours in a given day, the rest period is not required. The law also stipulates that rest periods should be taken, as much as is practical, near the middle of that work period.
I am not certain where you came up with 3 breaks per day unless that is your hospital's policy OR if you have a full hour lunch period and it is broken into 30 - 15 - 15. If you are not an hourly paid employee under your states law additional breaks besides the state mandated 30 minute lunch period is all you and your co-workers are entitled to. |
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billy p
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EVERYBODY WAS ABUSING THE SYSTEM now everybody has to suffer,tell her what the state law is .those that come in at 6 go to lunch at 11,have a 15min break at 9. if that does not work report them to the local labor boards |
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Jim B
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In California, a shift of eight and a half hours legally requires you to get a half hour lunch before five hours into your shift and two ten minute breaks. If you work in another state it might be a different situation.
Here's a link with more information.
http://www.legalandrew.com/2008/08/06/lunch-labor-laws-federal-and-state/ |
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Danielle
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well you are right you are legally supposed to have a break within 5 hours or less of continuous work, my advice to you would be to go to your union representative, if you are apart of a union, which hopefully you are. and if other people feel as strongly about this as you do then the union will no the appropriate action to take whether it will be work to rule, strikes or whatever but that would be your best bet i think, but your manager id definatly breaking the rules and the law by not letting you have a break or go to lunch within 5 hours of you starting work i would therefore strongly reccommend that you go to your union |
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Mad Viking
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Contact HR. They'll take care of it for you. If they don't take care of it. Go to handelonthelaw.com and send the story to a lawyer to see if you have a case. |
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LadyCatherine
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im confused as to why you don't get a lunch break.. if you come in at 6 am and leave at 230 pm and lunch is at noon, and they close the office, what do you do at noon..?
as for changing things and not writing them down, you have what she wrote down before.. go with that.. then you can't get in trouble..
what is the rule.. 'crap rolls down hill.'.. and you and I are at the bottom.. |
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jobbend
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I'm not an expert at CA law, but I do know that anyone scheduled for at least 8.5 hrs. is required to take a 30 min. unpaid (or paid - employer discretion) break after 5 hrs. There are no laws requiring any other break period that I am aware of - nor are breaks paid by law. If your company has a break policy - that would need to be enforced unilaterally.
So what to do? If you are not able to speak with your manager out of fear, you need to take your grievance to HR with credible evidence of the problem. And do it professionally. It might sound something like:
"During a department meeting my manager stated that we are going to close the office at noon and everyone will take a break. The problem is that I have already been at work for 6 hrs. If I wait until noon to take a lunch break, I find that I'm less productive and in need of a break sooner. I know that by law I'm entitled to a 30 min break after 5 hrs. Can you help me solve this? Then sit back and listen -don't talk. Let them ask you questions and talk through your problem with you. |
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