QUESTION
Employer required staff to work without pay and terminated in retaliation for complaint
Asked on Jun 01st, 2017 on Employment Contracts - Pennsylvania
More details to this question:
Employer was requiring hourly staff to stay after work and complete paperwork. When employer was asked by the employee for compensation for the time spent on paperwork, the employer told employee the time was volunteer time and would not be paid. Employee complained about this violation and was fired in retaliation on May 30. In the termination letter employer dated termination as May 26 but employee worked on May 28, was due holiday pay for May 29, and worked May 30 up until the time of firing. Employer is refusing pay for hours worked and failed to notify the employee that they had been terminated allowing the employee to work without compensation
1 ANSWER
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I see a couple of issues here to address. First is the after hours work. Employees who do work "off the clock" are entitled to be compensated. This has been a hot topic in wage and hour litigation, with big employers like Starbucks being sued in class action cases. You are entitled to be paid for this time. Your employer can pay you up to 15 days after your regular payday and still comply with Pennsylvania wage laws. If you aren't paid the correct amount or in a timely fashion (or both), you have the right to sue your employer. If successful, you are entitled to interest, penalties of 25% of the unpaid amount and attorneys fees. You can retain an attorney to represent you. Or you can file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Labor, wage and hour division. That's free but they aren't obligated to take your case and if they do, it'll be a much slower process.
Answered on Jun 02nd, 2017 at 9:00 AM