May 09 2008

WageLaw: OC Judge Says Waiting Time Penalties Are Wages

Published by Jon-Erik G. Storm at 3:50 pm

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:

WageLaw:

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.

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