Question: What do the following people have in common?:

• A cashier forced to pay back the company for cash register shortages;
• A retail salesperson not reimbursed for buying company clothing as his work uniform;
• A manager with a reduced bonus due to the losses in another department/division;
• An hourly associate charged for lost keys, tools, supplies or other company materials.

Answer: Their employers are probably violating California’s employee reimbursement laws. Those laws prevent an employer from collecting or receiving from employee wages already paid to the employee. Moreover, those laws say employees must be reimbursed for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred in the course of their work. Are these rules often broken? You bet they are. Although workers across the state have recovered sizable awards against their current and former employers for reimbursement violations, other companies are slow to change. If this is happening to you, get informed and take action. Don’t subsidize your own employer. The legal system is set up to “level the playing field” and give workers the power to correct workplace abuses. Cole & Van Note has served California’s workforce for decades as one of the state’s most respected workers’ rights law firms and has recovered massive and record-setting settlements/judgments for employees for workplace abuses. For a confidential discussion of your rights against a former or current employer and/or to submit a claim, contact us for more information.

This information is for illustrative and educational purposes only. It should not be construed as legal advice, the establishment of an attorney-client relationship, or as indicative of a particular outcome regarding any legal issue you might have.