By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Wage and hour matters usually manifest when disgruntled employees feel they have not been compensated properly for their work. Often, wage and hour matters are brought forth by employees who have been terminated, anticipate being terminated, or have just received a bad performance review.  This is especially true when it comes to overtime claims.

Companies should safeguard against possible problems by seeking counsel to properly classify employees as exempt from overtime pay.  Employers often mistakenly characterize workers as independent contractors to avoid payroll taxes, keeping track of hours worked or paying overtime.  Weinberg Law Firm can help properly assess how to classify workers to minimize liability exposure under the federal wage and hour laws.  

Dalls Labor & Employment Lawyer.

If workers are not properly classified, they may have claims for unpaid overtime against the company and individual owners/supervisors.  The employees may also be awarded double (liquidated) damages.  Further, if employees are successful on their claims, federal law mandates the company to pay the employees the cost of their legal fees in bringing a lawsuit.  If the employer’s conduct was willful, employees may seek unpaid overtime for the past three years.  

This is a predicament in which companies do not want to find themselves.  Weinberg
focuses on overtime pay issues, but can handle any wage and hour claim, including those that involve working off the clock, during breaks or lunch, and other violations covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The Supreme Court appears likely to rule against public employees who claimed a local government violated their privacy by reading racy text messages they sent on their employers' account.

Several justices said Monday that the employer, the Ontario, Calif., police department, acted reasonably in monitoring the text messages in view of its written policy warning employees they have no guarantee of privacy in the use of office computer and electronics equipment.

Justice Stephen Breyer said he didn't see "anything, quite honestly, unreasonable about that."

While the case involves government workers, the decision could have broader privacy implications as courts continue to sort out privacy issues in the digital age. Many employers, including Ontario, tell workers there is no guarantee of privacy in anything sent over their company- or government-provided computers, cell phones or pagers.

The case arose when the Ontario department decided to audit text message usage to see whether its SWAT team officers were using them too often for personal reasons. Three police officers and another employee complained that the department improperly snooped on their electronic exchanges, including many that were said to be sexually explicit.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.