Indiscreet Office Manager May Be Creating Liability

Q: My office manager is continually doing inappropriate things that affect my fellow employees and me.

Many times when an employee is going to be fired, other employees are aware of it because she discusses it. She discusses performance issues with fellow employees; she talks in inappropriate ways about the shareholders; she gives poor references when that is not company policy, and she tells people not to take breaks they are legally entitled to.

This type of behavior has been going on for several years, and management is not aware of it.

Several of us are contemplating leaving. We would like to share our concerns with management, but we are afraid of retaliation.

Is her behavior legal? Is there any way to stop it besides quitting?

--B.S., Aliso Viejo

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A: Yes, there is. Generally, employees do have privacy rights. Although those rights are not absolute, the office manager could be creating liability for the company by discussing employee discipline issues with employees who have no reason to be told.

In addition, if anything the office manager says about a former or current employee turns out not to be true, there would be potential liability for slander.

Finally, the office manager could be creating additional liability by instructing employees to work through their break periods.

I suggest that you raise these issues confidentially with the office manager’s boss. Make sure to include references to the break time issues, because employees are protected from retaliation for complaining about violations of state wage and hour laws, including laws that establish proper break times.

--Michael A. Hood

Employment law attorney

Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker

Sleep Time in Workday Should Count as Overtime

Q: I know an emergency medical technician who works in a nonemergency capacity for an Orange County ambulance company that has two types of shifts--24 hours and eight hours.

On a 24-hour shift, employees are active during the first 16 hours, then are given sleeping accommodations and are paid for the final eight-hour segment only if they are called on to work for more than three hours of that time.

Overtime is paid only when the time worked exceeds the shift assigned or when more than 40 hours is worked in a week.

Are these arrangements legal, or are these guys being taken advantage of?

--J.G., Anaheim

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A: Nonexempt workers in California usually are entitled to overtime compensation for working more than eight hours a day, or 40 hours a week. Normal working hours include standby time if you must remain on the premises.

There is an exception for ambulance drivers and attendants who are scheduled for a 24-hour shift.

This applies when the drivers or attendants have agreed in writing to exclude the following from working hours:

* Meal periods of not more than one hour each.

* A regularly scheduled uninterrupted sleeping period of not more than eight hours.

In your friend’s situation, the eight-hour segment apparently is not “uninterrupted.” Thus, it would be illegal to pay him only when he is called to work for more than three hours during that period.

The employee should be paid for his work. Unless the sleep period is uninterrupted, it is subject to overtime compensation.

--Don D. Sessions

Employee rights attorney

Mission Viejo

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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 Shop Talk column is designed to answer questions of general interest. It should not be construed as legal advice. Recent Shop Talk columns are available at https://www.latimes.com/shoptalk.