California Company Skimming Unpaid Overtime

San Diego, CAJennifer Teamer was told that she would be a salaried employee and make $400 weekly based on a 40-hour week. However, when it came time to sign the contract, she was told her salary would be based on 45 hours. There was no mention of overtime but Teamer knew her rights.

"I started working for this courier company on Valentine's Day, 2003 and was told I would get paid $400 to start," says Teamer. "It was tight but I live with my mother so I accepted. On my first day, the owner's daughter gave me a contract to sign. 'You told me that I would be working 40 hours a week,' I said. 'It's just a typo and if you work more than 40 hours we will cut you a separate check,' she replied.

For more than two months I worked overtime on the night shift, usually 42-45 hours per week. (We delivered lost luggage for airlines so sometimes I had to stay until 3am, dealing with irate passengers with no luggage. I had to stay until we were done - we were the final shift.)

She never added overtime to my check.

I would remind her but she kept 'forgetting' and said she had to consult the accountant. Talk about the runaround.

Finally I was getting so frustrated that I didn't go to work for two days. I was wondering if she was going to take a day off because I was on salary—she shouldn't deduct anything if I really was a salaried employee and exempt. (But I didn't meet the State of California's requirements for exempt anyway- I was not making enough money and I wasn't a manager.) According to her, it didn't matter how they had classified me because she deducted two days' pay.

You can't have it both ways!

I was really furious now and demanded overtime—obviously I was on an hourly rate. After expressing my frustrations, I found out that co-workers on the day shift and a colleague on my shift were in the same predicament - none of us got paid overtime. The company said we are all salaried employees. Are we all supervising each other?

When I started raising a ruckus, the other employees asked for overtime. My colleague's OT went back a lot further than mine and they told him that if he brought in his old time cards, they would compensate him for overtime. To this day he still hasn't been paid. He never kept records because we would just hand-write them. But they are verified by the daytime manager and of course they have to keep records. They are covering up, big time.

On March 16, 2007 I picked up my check and my OT payment wasn't there. I told Deborah, the owner's daughter, that I quit. 'When my money is there, I will be there', I told her. Until then, I'm not coming back.

She called an old dispatcher to cover my shift, but he is being paid as an independent contractor. She won't have to pay his taxes - she paid me this way back in 2003 but they got caught and had to pay a fine. Back to their old tricks.

I looked into the labor law to see if I could collect unemployment. If you quit due to non-payment of any legitimate monies owing, you are eligible for unemployment. I thought my case was justified. But the unemployment office called her and she said that my non-payment of overtime was an 'isolated event'. I don't consider 18 hours overtime at time and a half an isolated event. My coworkers said they will support me if and when I go to court and I know that some of them will join me.

Everyone wants their money and they are tired of getting stepped on. But the rest of them are afraid of losing their jobs. I'll let you know how our day in court goes...