California Labor Law: Assistant Managers Don't Count

Carson, CAGlenn says he would have made more money and worked less hours if he was paid an hourly wage rather than a salary. "All assistant managers were required to work 10-hour days and we ate our lunch standing up," says Glenn. "According to the California Labor Law, I am owed overtime compensation.

"Four years ago, I was hired as an assistant manager at the airport concession—this company is a big corporation with a chain of concessions in many airports around the U.S.," says Glenn. "All assistant managers worked more than 10 hours each day without breaks, 5 days a week. And some days we worked up to 13 hours.

I have no idea how they can get away with this.

When I was hired there was no discussion about how many hours I was expected to work so I assumed it would be about 40 hours a week. My last job was similar to this one but we clocked in and clocked out and everyone was paid an hourly wage. It was much better because we also were paid overtime. But in this job, there was no overtime, no breaks, not even a 10-minute break if we were busy.

I didn't want to complain and lose my job so it just went on. But I want to complain now because I found out that we are supposed to be paid overtime after 8 hours. And I filed a complaint now because I was fired recently. I was overworked and stressed out and lost my temper but that isn't reason enough to be fired; in the 4 years that I worked at this concession I didn't have any disciplinary action against me.

We were scheduled to work 10 hours every day and if the job wasn't done (you know what it's like at an airport, sometimes we were rushed off our feet) we had to make sure the store was clean and if there weren't any employees, we had to do all the cleaning ourselves. I talked with my lawyer and he can subpoena the company to get our schedules; if there was no manager that day, I would have to stay and that is documented.

Assistant managers got the worst job—I would have been much better off as an hourly employee."

Valerie (not her real name pending a lawsuit) was an assistant manager in a chain of family restaurants. Her former boss had every employee sign "meal break agreements" as part of the hiring process and Valerie's job was to make sure the servers worked 8-hour shifts without any lunch breaks. "My boss told me that if an employee took more than 15 minutes for a break, my hours would be cut as well as that employee's hours," says Valerie. "Nobody spoke out about California labor law violations because we were afraid of losing our jobs and right now work is hard to come by."

Finally, Julia was hired as a restaurant hostess last year and was recently "promoted" to assistant manager. She says working as a busperson would be a better deal. Her complaint isn't about overtime but she is owed compensation, according to California Labor Laws, for each shift she was scheduled to work. "I have wasted many hours of my time not to mention tanks of gas driving to work, only to be told that I wasn't needed on that shift," she says. "And sometimes I would be sent home within an hour of my shift beginning. The last time this happened was today. I was pulling into the parking lot at the restaurant and I received a phone call ( 9 minutes before my shift) informing me that my boss did not want me to come in. I was then terminated later that day—by email."

Isn't it about time people like Glenn, Valerie and Julia got some respect? And their attorney will be sure they also get compensation; employers cannot violate the California state Labor Law.