Wage & Hour Violations: No Small Change For Employers

Spurred by record unemployment and high profile cases netting huge settlements and damage awards in recent years, the number of lawsuits brought by employees who are misclassified as exempt (or salaried) have sky rocketed. Mr. Locker will examine recent cases brought by employees who claimed they were misclassified and demanded unpaid wages for overtime, missed meal periods, missed rest periods, on-call time and reporting time, etc. Mr. Locker will provide a set of criteria to help employers determine which employees are exempt or non-exempt under federal and state wage and hour laws. He will provide practical guidance on employee time tracking for overtime pay, missed meal and rest periods, time spent "on-call," reporting to work, making up work for personal reasons, training and travel, as well as employer recordkeeping, pay obligations and allowable paycheck deductions for sick and vacation time off. Mr. Locker will discuss how employers' recordkeeping practices will be impacted by the California Supreme Court's recent decision in Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court, which held that employers are not liable if the employee chooses to perform work during meal periods, so long as they are relieved of all duty. He will also discuss requirements under the new Wage Theft Protection Act and misclassifying employees as independent contractors.

Miles Locker, California's leading expert on wage & hour law, former Chief Counsel to the CA Labor Commissioner and amicus curiae counsel in Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court, is a founding partner at Locker Folberg LLP in San Francisco.  His practice includes consultation, expert witness services, representation of individuals, and class action litigation. Since 2006, he has been designated as an expert witness in over sixty federal and state court cases on the Labor Commissioner's enforcement policies, interpretation of the CA Labor Code and Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) wage orders, employer compliance with wage and hour laws, and damages computations. Mr. Locker was formerly an attorney at the CA Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) from 1990 - 2006 and Chief Counsel for the CA Labor Commissioner from 1998 - 2001. He advised the Labor Commissioner and the IWC on policy enforcement and played a key role in the development of agency policies. He has authored numerous DLSE opinion letters and sections of the DLSE's Enforcement Manual. He also represented employees in wage claims and represented the Labor Commissioner against employers in civil actions and in appellate proceedings in state and federal courts.

Mr. Locker is a 1981 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. He has been a guest lecturer at Berkeley on representing low wage workers, and has lectured at Hastings College of Law's Civil Justice Clinic, training law students to represent employees in wage claim trials. His publications include: "California Workers' Rights," 4th edition (co-author), published in 2010 by the Center for Labor Research and Education, University of California at Berkeley; "A Riddle Wrapped in A Mystery: State Wage and Hour Provisions," in the California Public Employee Relations Journal, December 2008 issue; and "California Wage and Hour Law - A Twenty-Five Year Trajectory," September 2007 issue, CA Labor & Employment Law Review, published by the State Bar of CA Labor & Employment Law Section.