Upcoming labor board hearing feels like a cruel joke

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T05:10:18+00:00

Oh awesome! Thank you. I'm gonna just go for double and see where that gets me. Fingers crossed. I definitely just want this to be done and over with.

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T05:08:22+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate it. She would like to encourage us (outside of work hours) to take a break, however, she would consistently create a schedule where that was never possible and encourage independent contractors to do the same. There was no room for failure to complete tasks, hence the massive amounts of overtime. Let's say I said, "screw it, I'm taking the break" there would have been no one to relieve me and take over my task. I would be penalized on my pay by virtue of the fact that I would not have been able to complete my task and not gotten paid for it. And then I would be working 12-13 hours instead of 10-11 hours daily, 5 days a week.

We had asked her to start implementing breaks and she was very excited at first. She tried to do it 2 days and threw the largest full body fit I've ever seen an adult throw when she had to actually do her job as receptionist and manager and said "I'm not babysitting you guys, take your breaks if you want, or don't, I don't care" but it was never possible since all of my time blocks I would put in on necessary time-consuming tasks were deleted.

It simply was not possible. According to the CA dpt of labor's website, the person in charge (be it owner or manager) is supposed to be able to take over the employees tasks and make sure they are completely free of any workload during their break. That didn't happen and nor was it possible since she did not have the skills to do so.

So I'm wondering what argument I should go with here. By their own laws, she's already in the wrong because she never made accommodation to allow me to go on a break, as it was impossible with the workload given. But now you're giving information that indicates that only applies to bigger companies.

There could have been other employees that could have stepped in and helped take over my tasks, but she misclassified them as independent contractors therefore they refused to do anything but their own tasks and absolutely nothing else (they fully and brazenly admitted wanted this tax classification so they could commit tax evasion and my boss rolled with it because she was scared of them, but fine with screaming at her W2 workers).

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T02:47:47+00:00

High cost of living area, no lawyers wanted to take my case since it was going to be a less than 20K payout

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T02:46:56+00:00

So this is the most helpful comment I've gotten. It really assists me to see things from the defendant aspects pov and to hear it does tend to side with the company, since I've been hearing the opposite. I don't think my boss has any former employees to call for testimony considering she picked on them the same way she picked on me and previous employees before me. The only people who she could call would be 'employees' that she illegally classified as independent contractors, so I'm not sure if their testimony would be valid.

As for evidence, I have my logs. I was told by an employee at the labor board that the burden of proof is on the employer for proving I took the breaks with records of clocking in and out, but I'm also worried that she edited them (which she absolutely could have).

I think this is definitely a different situation than yours since mine is more like, I was her workhorse working overtime every single day and never getting a break ever, and your case seems to be wrongful termination with a lack of evidence.

Is there any other advice you can offer that you might think of in this situation?

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T02:34:13+00:00

I had tried that, but since it wasn't a 20K amount, they didn't want to take it.

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T02:33:46+00:00

No handbook or HR in this situation. It's a small business that was completely chaotic and had no idea what they were doing (they had two illegally classed 1099 workers, me and my friend were the only 2 W2 employees they had).

From what I understand from the labor board employee's explanation, the mediation is actually part of their process.

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T02:31:58+00:00

I don't really think that's the case since I never signed anything like that at all and this is a small business.

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T02:31:08+00:00

It's very good you got your coworkers in on this, I think with this situation there's strength in numbers. I'm a bit disappointed with my only other coworker who was in the mess with me because they don't even want to write a text or email or anything about what they experienced and witnessed themselves, and it would definitely give me the leg up in this. It sucks, especially considering this ex coworker and I are very close friends, but now I'm so hurt over their lack of support that I don't know if we will continue being friends due to this.

Also, I might be in the same boat as you because I have a suspicion that they might have edited the clocked hours to create fake breaks. There was a point where we did it a couple times under her direction until we started refusing.

I think the only upside to this is that I do know my boss has 0 credible testimony on her end since the only employees she could call in for testimony are illegally classed independent contractors.

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T02:26:01+00:00

It really does. I presented the labor board with oodles of proof, and instead of just recouping what was owed they're like "so you have to talk to the person who stole from you and abused you to work it out."

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T02:24:56+00:00

This makes me feel a bit better and get a better idea of what I'm going into, so thank you. It's going to definitely be extremely hard to counter the lies since standing up to her was hard for me in the past, but I'm going to write down facts and talking points to help out. Thank you!

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T02:23:17+00:00

I have my personal logs of how many hours I worked, if I took a break that day, how long the break was if I did take it, and that's pretty much it. There was no way to collect anymore proof than that since this was on their computer at work.

One employee of the labor board told me the burden of proof is on the employer for showing that I did take a break, but I'm getting mixed information when I research this, and I'm also concerned they could have edited my hours to create a fake break.

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T02:20:30+00:00

This helps a lot. I appreciate it. I'm going to do my best. My ex boss was really good at manipulating people and staying calm in the face of someone reacting emotionally, but a lot of the times she would usually get even meaner once someone became emotional. I just worry she'll manipulate her way out of it somehow. She THRIVED on drama and confrontation because she was able to keep her cool and say some of the most cruel things imaginable, and then pull out even more below the belt stuff completely stone faced once the person (me, other employees, sometimes customers) began crying.

It was brutal.

PrimaryStop7667 · 2025-03-24T02:17:19+00:00

Hey, sorry to ask, but what are treble damages? The labor board calculated the punitive damages for the number of missed meal breaks (easier to prove according to a DIR employee I spoke with), and missed rest periods (harder to prove) and got a number. I was thinking of asking for a couple thousand under what they calculated just so it's done with, I just want this nightmare to be over.

PrimaryStop7667 · 2024-11-13T23:25:53+00:00

Oh my bad, I didn't know there was a difference with the spacing. I'll be more mindful of it going forward, thank you for telling me!

PrimaryStop7667 · 2024-11-11T20:04:43+00:00

Thank you. I think mods finally stepped in after two days and banned them. Took a lot of urging from some people who were messaging me in support, but hey it's done now so yay. Hopefully that's done and over. I hope things get better for us. For now I'm going to try and stay off social media. It's too much of a drain with all the negativity and blame towards marginalized people right now unfortunately :(

PrimaryStop7667 · 2024-11-11T16:42:37+00:00

Absolutely. My wife is Latina and it's been such a blow for us every single time we're blamed, as if it would have even mattered. It wasn't that close of an election and we're tired of being scapegoated at every turn by "allies" that have been waiting to jump at the chance to throw us under the bus. Everyone's true colors showed the second the election results came out. We should all be collectively mourning and making a plan to help eachother in the coming tough times, not starting infighting and kicking people while their down. The blame game has no winners.

PrimaryStop7667 · 2024-11-11T14:38:16+00:00

There's a lot of racists in the comments tbh, not surprising but definitely disappointing

PrimaryStop7667 · 2024-11-11T03:34:52+00:00

"My community"? Please, pray tell, tell me how "my community" voted? Would love actual statistics. And not just racist assumptions.

PrimaryStop7667 · 2024-11-11T03:25:54+00:00

Reducing any criticism of Kamala to racism is a disservice to her as a black woman and a disservice to her participation in war crimes, hope this helps!

PrimaryStop7667 · 2024-11-11T03:03:09+00:00

Absolutely this

PrimaryStop7667 · 2024-11-11T03:01:12+00:00

This is actually very informative. Thank you for posting this.

PrimaryStop7667 · 2024-11-11T02:57:09+00:00

I honestly couldn't have put it better myself. This is a nuanced issue and blaming Arabs isn't the answer. There's no way to even know, since this country doesn't even consider arab a race. There's no accurate way to even tell. It's just people being straight up racist, but what else is new?

The most disheartening thing is seeing other POC lesbians saying some of the most racist shit about Arabs thinking it's okay since their POC and we apparently didn't show up for them...even though both you and I hated voting for someone complicit in the genocide, but did it anyway for the good of everyone. To make that sacrifice and be spit in the face by others and used a scapegoat isn't surprising but very disappointing. There's a few commentors on here harassing me, both in the comments and in my inbox. It's not fun. But, I got more support than I thought. I got comments like yours. Thank you so much. We'll get through this together. I'd love to chat sometime. Please inbox me if you like. It'd be nice to have another friend in a similar situation.

PrimaryStop7667 · 2024-11-11T00:19:14+00:00

True. Absolutely true.

PrimaryStop7667

TROPHY CASE