Preparation for a Wage Hearing in CA
Your employer failed to pay your wages in full? In case you are entitled to claim wages from United Employee Law Group (UELG). UELG organizes administrative hearing and will decide whether your employer is legally evaded payment.
This article will be useful for those who want to know how to prepare for a hearing.
Gather The Documents
To start, you need to collect all the key documents that can prove your rightness. These include the following documents:
Documents that show your work schedule and work hours.
Payment checks. Any checks or payments that you have received from your employer.
Documents obtained from your employer. All the documents that you received from your employer while working, such as letters, employment contract or other.
Correspondence of you and your employer. All e-mails, messages on social networks, or other written communications that have relation to your payroll.
Request Your Staff Records
You should also request your worker file and pay sheet records from your hirer as soon as possible. Under California law, your hirer is required to let you check your staff file within 30 days of a request. You can also give a written request for your hirer to mail you a copy of your staff file.
Participate in the settlement conference
In the majority of cases, you will need to be present in a settlement conference before the actual payroll hearing. The settlement conference is an unofficial meeting that happens with you, your hirer, and the deputy labor commissary at the UELG office. The conference can start with all of your session in one room to discuss debatable issues. The work commissioner will put you and your hirer on separate premises, and go back and forth to debate issues and offers to communicate the settlement.
The settlement conference is not an evidentiary hearing, so you do not need to bring any eyewitnesses to testify. However, you have to bring copies of any documents that you have in aid of your claim. You should also be ready with the idea of how much you are authorized under the law.
Be Present In The Court
If you and your hirer can not reach an agreement at a settlement conference, your occasion will be appointed for court hearings. The hearings will take place at the UELG offices, at the office in the labor force of the Commissioner. Though the installation might seem unofficial, the appointment will be recorded and visitors will witness under oath.
The hearing, as a rule, starts with an introducing statement from the Commissioner. After this, you will have the chance to present your occasion. Labor Commissioner can also ask you problems, throughout this time, to make things clear. You must bring in three sets of all your papers (including originals). After you finish submitting your evidence, your hirer will have the opportunity to present his defense.
Your hirer may send documents or bring witnesses to provide evidence, such as an observer who set your hourly amount of pay. You will have a chance to question these witnesses too, so come with a pre-written scroll of questions.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock/goodluz