I use to work for Best Buy back in the day. At the Woodland Hills location in Southern California, store number 116 I believe. And during the entire time I worked there, my immediate managers and supervisors used to tell us in person, face to face, in writing and during monthly or store meetings, "That breaks were not mandatory and were as the business needs allows." And you can quote me on this as I have the paperwork where they actually wrote the above statement. A statement I might add that is 100% false and 100% illegal in this state! California Labor Code 226.7 clearly states that for every 4 hours you work you need to get a 10 minute rest period. During this rest period you cannot perform any work and technically you cannot be called off your break either, or else you never got the break to begin with. If you are not given a break, and/or called off it early, than your employer has to pay you for an additional hour of work at your rate of pay when the break didn't take place ( If you didn't get a break in May and in May you made 10 bucks an hour, they owe you an hour at 10 bucks an hour and so on). So as a result I missed at least 50 breaks if not more, and I documented every time that this happened. because early on I realized that I could not trust management there, for when I or someone else tried to talk to them about our rights or something that was illegal, we were punished. Like having our hours cut, a bad review, and numerous things like that.
Another thing that is illegal that a lot of companies ignore or simply don't know about is access to personnel records. If you submit a request in writing to get copies of your personnel files, your employers have a maximum of 21 days to comply with your wishes or else it is a $750 fine. My employers refused to give me access to my files and so I sued them for the missed breaks, as well as not getting my personnel files on time ( Your request has to be in writing, make copies of your request, and also send in your request via certified or registered mail and/or keep a fax confirmation if you can fax in your request. make sure the receipt you get actually says personnel file request on it. This is important because you need to prove when you sent it in, what was said and to where you sent it).
The last thing I sued for was that if you quit (Giving at least 72 hours notice)or even if you are fired, you have to get all of the money you are owed right then and there. That very day! Otherwise there are penalties which are your daily rate of pay ( If you make 10 bucks and hour and normally you work 8 hours a day, your daily rate is $80.00) up to 30 days or whenever they pay you if they pay you before the 30 days are up ( Whichever is the shortest period). So even if they only owed you like 20 dollars, the fines for not paying you upon your last day of work can really add up. In my case I am entitled to the whole 30 days and so that is close to $3,000 in fines.
Now my case went well I think, as I had a lot of evidence, while Best Buy had nothing to offer aside from their testimony and on cross examination I got them to contradict each other and also admit that they clearly violated California law on more than one occasion. Plus Frank V lied repeatedly in court and committed perjury! I couldn't believe how many times he told blatant lies. He even denied that he ever said, "Breaks were not mandatory," when he even said it during a previous meeting with the labor board less than 3 months ago! So I believe I will win for sure on the Personnel files and the late payment of monies owed. The breaks are a little trickier as it is my more word against theirs, although I had made detailed notes on the actual daily trackers Best Buy gave up every day which show dates, managers names and so on on them. All I am really concerned about now is that Best Buy will appeal the case if I win and we will have to do the whole thing all over again, possibly in Civil court. Though I will be able to present witnesses this time. Unfortunately my trail was scheduled while I was still in Europe and I only had 10 days to prepare my case and find people to testify. Some of whom had changed their cell numbers so I couldn't locate them in time or were in London, which really messed things up. As I had a lot of people lined up or that I was planning to subpoena, if I had time that is. But we will see how everything turns out. I will keep everyone here posted, and if you have a similar story please feel free to share it. I could also use some more witnesses if you have a similar story and/or worked at the same store around 2005 to 2006. Just let me know!
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