Labor Standards Division Can Help on Reimbursement

Q I am a salaried professional who was laid off as part of a work force reduction. While employed, I submitted business-related cellular phone bills on an expense report. A month after I was terminated, I received a $60 bill for business-related calls. The amount is small but I keep getting the runaround from my old employer. How can I get reimbursed?

--R.F., Costa Mesa

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A Under the California Labor Code, employees are entitled to reimbursement for expenditures made while performing their job duties. Because the amount at issue is so small, I suggest that you contact the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. This division handles complaints relating to nonpayment of wages, including claims for reimbursement of business expenses.

--Josephine Staton Tucker

Employment law attorney

Morrison & Foerster

Insisting on SDI Filing Is Wrong Q My wife, a petroleum salesperson, sustained injuries while driving her car performing work duties. The other party was insured and the insurance company has admitted complete liability.

My wife’s employer has requested she not file a workers’ compensation insurance claim and instead encouraged her to pursue State Disability Insurance benefits. If she pursues the SDI benefits, will this prevent her from pursuing a workers’ comp claim?

Is she entitled to unemployment benefits? Her employer has refused to pay for any sick days even though she has worked for the company for six years and only missed two days.

--D.R., Long Beach

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A It is wrong for an employer to insist that a worker file his or her claim under SDI. Once you select those benefits, it may be difficult if not impossible to make a claim for workers’ compensation benefits later.

SDI benefits are often easier to obtain than workers’ compensation benefits. However, SDI has a lower weekly benefit. Also, benefits under workers’ comp can continue indefinitely, even for the rest of your life, if necessary. SDI benefits are limited to one year.

Since the injury was work-related, the claim should be filed through the workers’ compensation system. For an employer to encourage you otherwise may constitute fraud on the SDI system, which obtains some of its funds from the state.

You might want to evaluate why your wife’s employer is encouraging her not to file for workers’ comp benefits. If it is because the employer did not follow laws insuring her under such a program, the employer could be subjected to a mandatory fine of $10,000 and other penalties.

I suggest that she respond to the employer’s request in writing. She should inform her supervisor that since the accident was work-related, she is required by law to submit it to the workers’ compensation system.

Also, I suggest putting the request for sick pay in writing. Evaluate your wife’s company policy for medical leave and sick pay. The company might have a short-term disability program that would provide more money than the other systems. Very often a worker might continue to receive full salary for a period of time, followed by a percentage of his or her salary under a long-term disability program.

If an employer has 50 or more employees and an employee has worked there for more than one year, the employer may be required to return the worker to the same job after his or her medical leave.

--Don D. Sessions

Employee rights attorney

Universal City

Yes, Mandatory Overtime Is Legal Q When I was first employed with my company, I was told that during a certain month there would be plenty of mandatory overtime (12-hour shifts plus weekends), and vacations would not be permitted during the busy season. That seems to be the general rule for this type of business.

This year we have a new supervisor and after working through the regular busy season, he has continued this mandatory overtime, setting up a schedule of teams to work alternate weekends. If it’s your weekend, you must work the overtime or find someone who will work that weekend for you.

I don’t mind working overtime when it’s needed, but I don’t like this mandatory weekend work schedule throughout the year. Can this mandatory overtime schedule be enforced and leave us with no alternative but to comply?

--E.K., Los Angeles

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A Yes. Employers can compel an employee to work overtime, and the employee can be discharged for refusing to work overtime. The employer must pay the employee for all overtime worked.

--William H. Hackel III

Employment law attorney

Spray, Gould & Bowers