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Library - Employment Law
Wage Claims, Overtime & Other Employee Compensation
OVERTIME LAW AND THE PRE-FILLED TIME SHEET
(When Employment Records Do Not Match the Facts)
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Q:
I work at a customer
service department responding to customer calls. I am an
hourly employee who’s supposed to be working 8 hours per
shift. Unfortunately, my shift would usually extend from
30 minutes to an hour on most days. I am not paid for
these extra hours. My supervisor asks me and my
co-employees to sign a pre-printed time sheet that shows
that we worked 40 hours per week. When I tell my
supervisor that I actually worked more than 8 hours on
some days, my supervisor would tell me that the extra
hours were not authorized and will not be paid. Is this
legal? |
A:
No, it is not. You are entitled to
wages not only at your regular rate but at the overtime rate of 1½
times your regular rate for any work in excess of 8 hours per day.
The California Labor Code requires that non-exempt
employees (i.e. employees who do not fall under the executive,
administrative, or professional exemptions in the Wage Orders) must
be paid overtime compensation if they worked any hour or a fraction
of an hour in excess of 8 hours per day or more than 40 hours per
work week. The employee must be paid at the premium rate of 1 ½
times the employee’s regular rate if the employee worked more than 8
but less than 12 hours in a work day. (If the employee worked more
than 12 hours in a work day or in excess of 8 hours on the seventh
day in a work week, the employee is entitled to double the
employee’s regular rate.)
Some employers have adopted a policy that overtime must
first be approved or authorized before it can be paid. This policy
does not violate the law. However, some employers may say that if
the employee worked overtime “without approval or authorization” the
employee will not be paid. This is contrary to California law. If
the employee worked in excess of 8 hours without approval, but the
employee was allowed to work anyway, then the employee’s overtime
hours must still be paid.
Even if the employee is asked to sign a pre-filled time
sheet showing that the employee only worked 40 hours during the work
week even though the employee worked more, this does not mean that
the employee cannot claim for overtime. The employee, however, may
need to prove that he or she was still at the employer’s place of
business beyond 8 hours and that he or she was still working.
A case involving just these issues was recently
settled. The employer, Sprint Nextel Corp., was sued in federal
court by its call center employees, who alleged that Sprint Nextel
did not allow the employees to record their work time and instead
gave them time sheets showing they worked 40 hours a week even when
they worked more than that. Sprint Nextel has offered to pay $8.8
million to settle the lawsuits with its call center employees in
various states, including California.
©
Law Offices C. Joe Sayas, Jr.
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[C. Joe
Sayas, Jr., Esq. is an experienced trial attorney helping to protect
the rights of employees, policyholders, and consumers. Mr. Sayas has
obtained multi-million dollar recoveries for his clients and their
families in cases involving serious personal injuries, wrongful
death, insurance claims, wage and hour (overtime) litigation and
unfair business practices. He is currently Class Counsel to
thousands of employees seeking recovery of back wages and consumers
seeking damages arising from the sale of insurance policies. He is a
graduate of Georgetown University Law Center Washington, D.C. and
the University of the Philippines.]
Disclaimer:
As a public service, the Law Offices of C. Joe Sayas, Jr. has
prepared informative articles on topics of interest to consumers and
policyholders. Nothing contained in these articles should be
construed as creating or intending to create an attorney-client
relationship or purporting to give legal advice on individual
matters. Due to constant changes in the law, exceptions to general
rules of law, and factual differences, please seek professional
legal advice before acting on any matter.
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