Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

MANY employees who have valid claims for unpaid wages, overtime, and missed meal/rest breaks hesitate to assert their rights. One of the main reasons employees do not seek redress against Labor Code violations is "economic reality." The monetary recovery may be less than the costs of litigation and the attorneys’ fees. Wage claims are usually modest, ranging from the hundreds to a few thousand dollars. This is not enough incentive for employees to pursue their claims.

Another reason employees do not fight labor violations is that employees are afraid of employer retaliation. Retaliation may involve firing, demotion, suspension or assignment to less desirable work conditions. Employees find it difficult to retain their employment while bringing formal legal action against the employer. A current employee who individually sues his or her employer feels a greater risk of retaliation.

Lastly, many employees do not at all know that their labor rights have been violated. Some workers, particularly immigrants with limited English language skills, may be unfamiliar with the labor protection laws. Even English-speaking or better educated employees may not be aware of the nuances of overtime laws with their complex classifications of exempt employees. More alarmingly, there are employers who deliberately misinform their employees about their rights.

Since the employees’ reluctance to enforce their employment rights encourages more employer violations, both the legislature and the courts have created laws to protect and uphold employee rights:

California has laws prohibiting retaliation which allow employees to pursue remedies against retaliating employer, including the right to recover damages and attorneys’ fees or to seek injunction against the employer’s retaliation.

Potential class members still employed by employer might be unwilling to sue individually or join a suit for fear of retaliation. A class action shields the individual employee from the personalized confrontation inherent in individual litigation. Since a class action usually involves a large number of employees from dozens to thousands, the confrontational effect on each class member employee is significantly reduced and the fear of retaliation substantially lessened.

Class actions also give employees an inexpensive way to resolve their wage claims, by providing a procedure where the claims of many individuals can be resolved at the same time and providing small claimants with a method of obtaining redress for claims which would otherwise be too small to warrant individual lawsuits.