May 09 2008
WageLaw: OC Judge Says Waiting Time Penalties Are Wages
This is the fun thing about employment law. Just when the courts resolve some arcane aspect of wage and house law that other lawyers think is unbelievably esoteric, a new one pops up:
Wage and hour lawyers are talking about a law and motion ruling made last week by Orange County Superior Court Judge David Velasquez, holding that waiting time penalties under Labor Code § 203 were recoverable as restitution under Business & Professions Code § 17203. In Ybarra v. Aramark Corp., No. 30-2008-00180008-CU-OE-CXC, the court treated section 203’s “wages of the employee [that] shall continue as a penalty” as ordinary wages.
This, of course, will touch off a big hullaballoo.
This particular statute is even more ambiguous than the meal/rest breaks because it says, “the wages of the employee shall continue as a penalty.” This could mean it’s both a vested wage and a penalty, the latter being unavailable under the UCL. Of course, this is a smaller issue because it is automatically capped at 30 days, but still raises all of the other questions that the rest/break “premiums” did, and it continues a trend. The latter fact may be the most alarming for the defense bar.
I admire this lawyer’s creativity, even if I think this ruling isn’t correct and will only add fuel to the blowback fires that are already burning.
The always excellent UCL Practitioner has the order, here.
Tags: wage/hour.
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