Let’s say your work starts at 7 am to restock the shelves. However, your manager shows up at 7:30 am when everyone officially clocks in. is it legal for the manager to keep you from clocking in until he or she arrives? This means that you’ll be working for half an hour and not getting paid. Is this fair?
As an employee, you’ll be happy to know that it is not legal to keep employees from clocking in until the manager arrives. This, in fact, is a form of wage theft, and you are entitled to wage damages.
Your employer is violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which says that the employee has the right to be paid for any time they spend working.
The law takes these kinds of violations very seriously. Your employer owes you half an hour’s worth of pay for each day since this practice began. If this extra half hour puts you into overtime, your employer also owes the overtime premium. You are also likely entitled to penalties and interest on the wages you didn’t receive.
David Payab, Esq. from The Law Offices of Payab & Associates can be reached @ (818) 918-5522 or by visiting http://payablaw.com/
