Irvine, CA"All of us in the sports dealership's service department are afraid our checks are going to bounce," says Eddie. In fact they have already started. Eddie says his co-worker's paycheck bounced today. "The last place I worked at was hit with a California labor law violation and it looks this place is going to get fined as well."
"Our checks are always short," says Eddie. "Recently one paycheck I got was short $300??"that's around 7 or 8 hours of work--and my co-worker was shorted 15 hours just last week. We keep asking the boss if everything is OK and he assures us that everything is fine; that we are just in a crisis right now due to this recession." But even in these hard economic times, employers can still be fined if they violate California labor employment laws.
Eddie is a motorcycle mechanic and works on commission only, but he has a choice: he can either get paid minimum wage or commission??"whichever is greater. However, he should be getting an hourly wage because he provides his own tools. "The last place I worked at was fined for not giving the commission technicians their minimum wage," Eddie says. "That was in 1999 and our minimum wage was $19 per hour. One of my co-workers looked up our wage this year and it is anywhere from $18 to $23, depending upon how long you have been in the industry.
"I think my current employer should also be fined and penalized for not complying with the California labor laws. We have talked to him about this issue and he just says 'Don't worry' or he will blame it on his CPA??"the accountant who does our payroll. But this has been going on since last October when he fired everyone in HR. This company employed 134 workers but now we are down to 40 employees. Ninety people have been laid off due to the economy. We are holding on with a skeleton staff??"they look at us as commission technicians and if work doesn't come in, we don't get paid. I also know co-workers in the parts department who have gone 3 months without their bonus checks; nobody knows how long they can hold on for.
Sometimes we've gone home with 40 hours of pay for a two-week period and a lot of the time we are here 6 days a week waiting for someone to bring their bike in for repair. We are supposed to get paid idle time if nothing comes in but that's not getting paid. We are also supposed to get paid if we clean up the shop or do any maintenance in the shop??"of course we don't get paid for that either.
Two brothers own this corporation. One of the owners came by and let us know last Friday that they were giving up on two of the brands??"Suzuki and BRP. This means that we have two less brands to work on??"the future of my job is looking pretty bleak.
Last month the owners were supposed to give us 30 days notice of any payday change. They never did. The California labor law states that within 30 days prior to a payday change, the employer is supposed to post the new payday change in a prominent location where everyone can see it.
If it is money the owners need to pay, they'll hide from you. My boss is constantly hunting them down. Apparently it is hard to find the owners because they switched offices in another location and we don't even have their phone number. The only way to get in touch with them is through our boss who will email the owners and then he has to wait for a reply.
I'm not the smartest guy in the industry but right now I have a way out??"I have another job lined up. So I'm just waiting to find out if my next check bounces. It doesn't make sense that our checks bounce because we get paid from commission??"if we make $30 per hour, the owners are making $45 per hour. They make good money off us??"it's not that they don't have the money to pay us--they are just bad business people.
Our next step is to file a complaint with the California state labor board and then seek legal help."