Lompoc, CAMany employers think they can violate California labor laws by taking advantage of their minimum wage employees. They think they can get away with not giving them proper breaks, hoping that the employees will not stand up for their rights. Marie S. (not her real name) worked at a gas station for just over a year and says she thinks her employer regularly violated California labor law.
Marie worked full shifts at the gas station, but the majority of her time was spent alone, meaning that she could not take breaks, including lunch breaks, and could not go to the bathroom. Because she was not allowed to take breaks, she never had the opportunity to sit down while at work, until she took matters into her own hands. Unfortunately, her employer's wife came by the gas station while Marie was sitting down.
"She didn't like that," Marie says. "That was one of the reasons stated on the paper he gave me when I was terminated??"that I sat down. I worked without a break??"not even a lunch break??"so I felt that I should be able to sit down for a while.
"The paper also says that he gave me warnings, but I never received any type of warning, not even a verbal warning. Once, I had a drive off of $80, which was my fault and I took responsibility for that. At the end of my shift, I wrote a note explaining what had happened and I said I would pay back the $80, which I did by taking $20 off my next four paychecks. But then the paper says I received another warning for a drive off of $42, but that never happened.
"The other thing is that we're a gas station??"drive offs happen. All the employees had drive offs, not just me. I don't feel that is justification for firing me.
"My employer wrote that I got 'another' customer complaint, but I never had any customer complaints. My customers were regulars and they loved me. Plus, I got 100 percent on a secret shopper visit??"I got an award of $40 for that. So it's not true that I had a customer complaint. If I did have complaints, they didn't tell me about it??"nobody said anything. I'm accused of being belligerent and insubordinate when questioned on things, but nobody questioned me on anything.
"We had to stand most of the time and it was a hard cement floor. I asked my boss if he could just get us a rubber mat to stand on and he flat out refused. I asked a few times because it was hard standing on the floor, but he wouldn't do it.
"I was responsible for maintaining restrooms while on shift, but he did not provide us with gloves for cleaning??"even though I requested some. One time, I had to clean up a child's vomit from the counter and the front of the store and I had no gloves to clean with. I was really mad about that."
There are some employers who have no trouble asking their employees to do things they would never do themselves. Standing for full shifts with no possibility of a rest break, lunch break or even a break to go to the bathroom is ridiculous and it should not be asked of employees. Cleaning restrooms without gloves goes beyond the bounds of what is reasonable.
Employers get away with these violations because many employees are too afraid to fight back. Hopefully as more employees come forward, employers will think twice before breaking California state labor laws.