Wages for Employee Who Quit Must Be Paid on Time
Q. I resigned from a financially troubled company about five months ago and was expecting to be paid for unused vacation time. Since then, the company has paid some of the amount but still owes more. I have heard there is a 72-hour time frame in which an employer must pay a former employee in full. But apparently this company does not honor this time frame. Are there any penalties for what they have done?
--J.P., Mission Viejo
A. You are correct. Under California law, employees who resign are entitled to be paid all wages due within 72 hours of quitting. If employees give 72 hours’ notice before quitting, they are entitled to be paid upon leaving.
Failure to pay wages when due subjects the employer to a “waiting time penalty,” with the employee’s wages continuing to accrue, up to a maximum of 30 days. Thus, if an employer fails to pay vacation pay that is due upon the employee’s termination, the employer could be liable for paying another month’s wages as a penalty.
The penalty does not apply if there is a good-faith dispute over whether the wages are really owed, however. Disputes often arise between employers and employees over how much vacation time is owed upon termination of employment, particularly when precise records of vacation accrual and usage have not been kept.
If you believe you are still entitled to be paid for accrued vacation, your best recourse at this point would be to file a claim with the state labor commissioner’s office.
--James J. McDonald Jr.
Attorney, Fisher & Phillips
Labor law instructor, UC Irvine
Don’t Omit Positions From Resume Q. I resigned from a company after a dispute with the owner over sales commissions owed me. Now I have discovered that he is giving prospective employers very negative reviews and opinions not only about my qualifications but my character. Should I omit that position from my resume? Can he be held liable for any jobs I may have lost because of his comments?
--R.T., Long Beach
A. You should not omit that position from your resume. When reviewing resumes, prospective employers typically look for gaps in employment.
A prospective employer may assume that a gap in employment means that you were terminated from one job before you had the chance to find another. Or they may assume that you had to leave employment for personal reasons, and may be concerned that you will be a less than stable employee.
Certainly, if you are interviewed for a job, you will be questioned about the period of unemployment. If you explain your circumstances at that point, it will likely appear that you had been attempting to hide an unfavorable track record.
If your former employer has made untrue statements about you to prospective employers and if you were not hired because of those statements, you may have legal recourse. For example, you may be able to assert a claim for “blackballing” under the California Labor Code, or for defamation.
For that reason, I typically encourage employers to provide only basic information--such as dates of employment, title and most recent rate of pay--when contacted for references.
--Josephine Staton Tucker
Employment law attorney
Morrison & Foerster
Taking Time Off for Religious Days
Q. One of my bosses and I are the only Jewish employees in a bank. When I recently asked this person if I could use vacation time for the major Jewish holidays, he told me I could only take them without pay. Otherwise, he said, it might lead to abuse by other employees. Could this be construed as discrimination?
--S.L., Culver City
A. As a general rule, an employer has a duty to reasonably accommodate its employees’ religious beliefs unless it would cause the company undue hardship.
In your case, this probably means that you must at least be given the most important Jewish holidays off without pay. However, unless the non-Jewish employees are permitted to use vacation time for their religious holidays, your employer is probably not discriminating against you in requiring you to take religious holidays off without pay.
If the bank’s non-Jewish employees may use vacation for religious holidays and you are not permitted to do so, however, this is probably discriminatory. In that case, I suggest you bring this to the attention of the bank’s personnel head or to a member of senior management. You should also tell your boss that you are doing this because you believe it is unfair and discriminates against you because of your religion.
If you cannot resolve the situation internally, you may go to either the state or federal anti-discrimination agency and explain your situation. The state agency is the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the federal agency is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
--Diane J. Crumpacker
Employment law attorney
Fried, Bird & Crumpacker
If you have a question about an on-the-job situation, please mail it to Shop Talk, Los Angeles Times, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626; dictate it to (714) 966-7873; or, e-mail it to shoptalk@latimes.com. Include your initials and hometown. The column is designed to answer questions of general interest. It should not be construed as legal advice.
