Texas Employment Legal Questions

You should make a formal complaint in writing to human resources and document everything in writing that happens. Be sure to put everything in writing and don't depend on a verbal complaint with a manager or HR. If you don't put it in writing it will be as if it didn't happen. Once you make the formal complaint, follow up to make sure the issues are addressed. You will likely face opposition, but you have a right to be able to work without all the petty gossip and backbiting that appears to be going on.  If you think the negative activity is based on race, gender or other Title VII protected status, then you could file a complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission and EEOC.... Read More

If your employer is paying you at the reduced minimum wage for tipped employees ($2.13 per hour last I checked) then no, your employer cannot reduce or use your tips to pay non-tipped employees such as busboys and kitchen staff.  If your employer is paying you at regular minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) then it depends on your agreement with your employer as to the disposition of those tips. If you feel like your employer is not paying you correctly and it can't be worked out informally, you can complain to the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage & Hour Division.  There is an office in each of the major cities in Texas (DFW is in Arlington).  Good luck.... Read More

An employee who resigns must be paid the remainder of his or her wages on the next regularly scheduled pay-day.  An employee who is involuntarily terminated must be paid the remainder of his or her wages within 7 days of termination.  Complaints about an employer's failure to pay wages (including commissions and accrued and unused PTO, Sick Leave or Vacation if the employer has a writted policy about paying such items) can be addressed to the Texas Workforce Commision - Labor Law Department.  The controlling law is found at Chapter 61 of the Texas Labor Code. Good luck.    ... Read More

An employer cannot take any amounts out of your paycheck (except taxes and child support) without your written consent.  Further, even with your written consent, the deductions from each paycheck cannot result in your making less than minimum wage for the time period reflected in the paycheck.  You can file a complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission - Labor Law Department (known as a wage complaint or Texas PayDay Act complaint) if the employer makes unauthorized deductions from your paycheck in an attempt to force the repayment of the excess raise. You have 180 days from the date of any unlawfult deduction to file such a complaint. However, be aware that the PayDay Act has no anti-retaliation provisions in it.  So if you are still employed with the employer and you file such a complaint, there is no rule preventing the employer from firing you.  You may get your money back, but you may not have a job either.  Good luck.... Read More

Absent a contract, employees in Texas are employed "at-will", which means either the employer or the employee can end the relationship with or without cause and with or without notice.  However, an employer cannot fire an employee for an illegal reason, such as age, race, gender, religion, disablity, color, national origin, for using or to prevent use of an employee benefit plan, such as pension or retirement or refusing to commit a crime.  That said, the anti-discrimination laws (all of the above except the last 2) only apply to employers with 15 or more employees. If you have a good faith belief that the real reason you were fired, regardless of the stated reason, is your age (over 40), then you can file a complaint with the EEOC. There is an office in most of the major cities in Texas.  If you have a good faith belief that the reason you were fired was for using an employee benefit plan, contact the US Department of Labor.  Again - offices in most major Texas cities.  If you are going to contact one of the federal agencies, do so immediately.  There are very short deadlines to do so.  At some point, you will have to provide evidence of any unlawful motive.  You can't just make a bald allegation and expect that something positive will happen.  Good luck.    ... Read More

The short answer to your question is, "yes." A private sector employer may fire (or demote, or transfer, or reduce future wages) for any reason or no reason, even a mistaken or made up reason, as long as the real reason isn't race, sex, age, national origin, religion, color, disability.  The concept is known as at-will employment and it is the law in most of the states.... Read More

The Texas Payday Act (which is found at Chapter 61 of the Texas Labor Code) says that, except for taxes and court-ordered child support, an employer may not withhold any amount from a paycheck without the signed written consent of the employee.  You may contact the Texas Workforce Commission, Labor Law Department, and file a Payday Act Complaint to recover your money if you do so within 6 months of the date the amount was withheld.    ... Read More

First, if this happens again in the future, don't wait so long to do something about it.  Within 180 days of a missed paycheck, you could have filed a wage complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission, which would have pursued this matter for you for free.  You are too late to take that route now, but you still have options. You will now have to file a lawsuit for your employer's breach of the contract in which he/she/it agreed to pay you for your labor.  There doesn't have to be a written contract (great if there is).  The law implies a contract.  You performed your part of the agreement - you worked.  The employer failed to pay its part of the agreement - to pay you.  The reimbursement part is the same theory, just a little trickier.  You are going to have to show that the expenidtures you made were authorized by the employer.  That can be done by showing a specific authorization (some kind of writing, e-mail, text) or by showing that you have incurred similar expenditures in the past, which the employer did reimburse. Probably the easiest place to file your case is your local small claims (Justice of the Peace) court.  To be exact, the JP court that covers the area where your employer's office is located or, if that is a long way from you, the JP court over the area where you performed the work. JP Courts have forms to fill out and they do not require that you be knowlegeable about the law.  See  https://www.traviscountytx.gov/justices-of-peace/jp1/filing-suit for more information.  However, be aware that a JP Court can only hear a case where the maximum damages are $10,000.00.  So you won't be able to collect more than that, except you can collect your filing and service fees on top of the money you are owed. Your other option is to go to a County Court at Law or District Court, either in the Employer's county or in the County were you performed the work.  These courts won't be limited to $10k.   However, I don't recommend you try this without a lawyer, who will charge you for the representation.  In a breach of contract case, you can recover your attorneys fees in addition to the unpaid wages.  If you choose not to go the JP court route and want to hire a lawyer and if you are in or near one of the big counties (Tarrant, Dallas, Bexar, Travis, Harris, El Paso) and possibly some of the medium sized counties (Taylor, Smith, Collin, Lubbock, Potter, Bowie etc.) you may find that the local bar association has a "lawyer referral service".  If they do, you might be able to find an attorney though one of them who will do an initial consultation for $20-$50.  That won't be for the whole case, but for that small fee you can find out about your rights and your chances of winning and the cost of further representation. Good luck.... Read More

Unless an employer has a contract with its employees to the contrary, it is always free to adjust salary/hourly rates prospectively (ie into the future) and the employee can choose to work for those wages or not.  However an employer is NOT free to adjust wages retroactively.  Once an employee works the time, the employer is obligated to pay for that time at the previously agreed-upon rate.  With respect to the two week-notice issue, if there are hours that have been worked and not yet paid at the time an employee resigns without giving the two-week notice, the employer is not free to reduce the hourly rate it will pay for those hours.  However if an employee gives a 1 week notice (or some notice less than two weeks) the employer is free to say that for the remainder of his time as an employee of the company he will only be paid minimum wage.  The employee can then choose to work for the remining time or not.... Read More

Typically, Texas employers are not required to give any days off and can require employees to work any number of hours.  Most employers are, however, required to pay overtime after 40 hours each week.  My understanding from my own clients is that AC folks are very much in demand, particularly this time of year.  In that one's health is usually regarded as more important than one's job, perhaps it would be advisable to find a new employer rather than attempt to fight with the current employer.    ... Read More

You are in a difficult situation.  Normally, an employee who quits is not elible for unemployment.  However, there is a situation, known as constructive termination, that makes quitting under certain circumstances the same as being fired.  To prove constructive termaination, you must show that the harassment was so bad that no reasonable employee would have remained employed with the employer.  It is a very difficult concept to prove.  If you decide to apply for unemployment, you should admit that you quit but contend that you were constructively terminated. You should have all of your evidence, particularly the text messages you referenced, organized and ready to present to the TWC.  Good luck. ... Read More

In Texas, an employer is not permitted to make deductions from wages (except for taxes and court-ordered child support) unless it has the written consent of the employee to do so.  That consent must be specific.  Further, even if the employer has the appropriate consent, its additional deductions cannot cause the employee to make less than minimum wage for any given week. If your employer did not have consent to make the deductions it made, you can file a wage claim with the Texas Workforce Commission's Labor Law Department - you can find it and the forms on the Commission's website.  Caution: the law that governs this issue has no anti-retaliation provisions.  So if you are still employed with the subject employer and he/she/it gets mad because you filed the complaint, there is no protection for you if the employer terminates your employment. Good luck.... Read More

Sorry, but the best answer you're going to be able to get without sitting down with a lawyer is "maybe".  Here's why - non-compete agreements are disfavored in the law because, as you point out, they can keep people from making a living.  They also diminish competition in the market place for ideas and prices, ie we want people who can build a better or cheaper mousetrap to do so.  That said, the law will protect a business from employees stealing its secrets and using those secrets in the marketplace against it.  So the law says that if an employer has a protetable interest in trade secrets, it can enforce a non-compete against its former employees, but only to the extent that non-compete is narrowly draft to protect those interests and no more.  In my experience, employers often over-use non-competes or draft them too broadly, sometimes out of ignorance as to what the law will allow and sometimes in a deliberate attempt to elimiinate competition in their marketplace.  To know whether the agreement is enforceable, you will need to sit down with an attorney experienced in non-competes and discuss what trade secrets your employer might have that merit protection, whether or not you already knew those secret when you signed the document or whether the employer did not reveal those secrets to you until after you signed the document.  Assuming you identifiy protectable trade secrets, then you and the attorney must determine whether or not the non-compete is overbroad in time, geographic area, or scope of restricted activity.  For example if the employer only operates in a certain city or portion of the state, the law may not enforce a non-compete that purports to restrict the former employee's activities state-wide or nation-wide.  If the trade secret is time-sensitive (e.g. a price list that changes every 6 weeks), the law will not enforce a non-compete that is longer than neessary to protect that secret.  If the employer is the business of manufacturing a gadget that does a certain task and the former employee goes to work in a business that does that same task via software, the law may not enforce the non-compete because the employee's new employment does not directly compete with the old employer's activities.  Finally, if there is no protectable interest that can be identified, the law would strike down the entire non-compete. Look on this (lawyers.com) website for attorneys near you that practice in the area of non-compete agreements or look on the website for the Texas Board of Legal Specialization (TBLS.org) for attorneys that are board certified in labor and employment law. Good luck.... Read More

I'm not sure I understand your question, so if I don't answer it, please feel free to respond and clarify.  I assume you are talking about hourly employees who "punch in" on an electronic or mechanical time clock.  The beginning time for their payment for the day would start when they punch in.  So if an employee is supposed to begin work at 8:00 and doesn't clock in until 8:07, the time for which you are paying him doesn't begin until 8:07.  You should make sure that the employees are clocking in immediately when they do begin work and are not clocking in after they do so.  Payroll issues aside, you are free to terminate or discipline an employee who is late to work. I am unaware of any concept of "grace period" in the law.  However in certain industries and fact-specific situations, an employer is required to pay employees for the time it takes to put on and take off specialized personal protective equipment.  If such activities are part of your employees' day, then there is a much longer discussion involved.... Read More

With only rare exceptions, an employer must pay an employee at least minimum wage for all hours worked.  Unless an employee is specifically exempt from the requirement, he or she must also be paid 1.5 times his or her regular hourly rate for all hours worked over 40 in a given week.  If you believe you are not being paid correctly, you should either seek the advice of an experienced labor & employment lawyer (it may be the attorney can represent all of the employees who are not being paid correctly) or file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage & Hour Division.  There is an office in each major city in Texas with DFW sharing one in Arlington.... Read More