can someone help answer these question. california

to start off, my employer went from peace work contractor to a hourly employer, meaning hourly california laws should apply. correct?

1) i've been working out of town for the past 7 weeks (180 miles away from home). the first 5 weeks, my employer paid for lodging instead of perdiem, but the past two weeks they have refused to pay for it, so we had to sleep in our cars or pay for our own lodging. a transfer was never taken place however a new office was opened here. and is drive time accounted for because my real office is based where i live. is this legal on their part? not having to pay for lodging. o yea, there are other employees that are getting either perdiem or lodging paid for working in the same home base

2) my hourly contract says nothing about me having to produce a certain amount work to compensate for the hours work. meaning if a task was calculated to pay $100 (peace work price) and i get paid $25 an hr they expect me to finish the job in 4 hrs, but sometimes it just cant be done in that time period. it can possibly take up to 6 hrs or more. because the company calculated it to only take 4 hrs, they will not pay for any extra hours worked (no pay for the 2 hrs worked). (i'm normally working a 12 hr shift in a day and have been told not to work over 12 hrs a day).

3) because my employer is holding us to a peace work price, we have been passing up our lunches and working 13 to 15 hrs a day to make enough (peace work price) to add up to the hours we need. sometimes we still dont get to claim the full 12 hrs of work when we work more.

if anyone can give me advice or links to laws that can help me, it will be greatly appreciated.

1. 2802. (a) An employer shall indemnify his or her employee for all
necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct
consequence of the discharge of his or her duties, or of his or her
obedience to the directions of the employer,
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=lab&group=02001-03000&file=2800-2810

2. If you are now being paid a fixed hourly rate, they need to pay you that rate; you cannot perform work for free.

3. However, if no more than 12 hours of work per day is authorized, then that's all you work without approval, and you could legally be fired for working over 12 hours in violation of the company rule.

It sounds like the company is trying to mix "piece rate" or "job rate" with an hourly rate, and I'm not sure what exactly their rationale is. Generally speaking, it's either one or the other. If your agreement is an hourly rate, then that's what you must be paid, unless you receive advance notice of a different compensation method or a lower hourly rate.

http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/HowToFileWageClaim.htm

What type of business is this and what exactly do you do?

And the "contract"? Not all writings are enforceable contracts; some are merely statements/agreements of working conditions.

1.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=lab&group=02001-03000&file=2800-2810

2. If you are now being paid a fixed hourly rate, they need to pay you that rate; you cannot perform work for free.

3. However, if no more than 12 hours of work per day is authorized, then that's all you work without approval, and you could legally be fired for working over 12 hours in violation of the company rule.

It sounds like the company is trying to mix "piece rate" or "job rate" with an hourly rate, and I'm not sure what exactly their rationale is. Generally speaking, it's either one or the other. If your agreement is an hourly rate, then that's what you must be paid, unless you receive advance notice of a different compensation method or a lower hourly rate.

http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/HowToFileWageClaim.htm

What type of business is this and what exactly do you do?

And the "contract"? Not all writings are enforceable contracts; some are merely statements/agreements of working conditions.


its a copper splicing job. and we are not authorized to work over 12 hours, but its not written down exactly how many hours we are allowed to work, it was just word of mouth. we do not want to work those extra hours, its more like we are forced to work it.

if its okay with you, i can pm you the hourly contract.

if its okay with you, i can pm you the hourly contract.

Nope, don't. I am not an attorney. You need a California attorney to review it.