Workers’ Compensation Fraud for Employees Who Caused Their Accidents

April 27, 2015 by Beck Law P.C.

Workers’ Compensation fraud. A memorable scene from the television series Shameless featured William H. Macy’s character – who was desperate for money, but too lazy to work for a living – taking a job just so that he could intentionally injure himself with a staple gun, and collect workers’ compensation benefits. The scene reflects a fear held by many employers about employees taking advantage of the workers’ compensation system. It also reflects a fear held by some employees who are injured on the job – a fear that they’ll be accused of abusing the system in such a manner.

A No-Fault System

In California, workers’ compensation is a no-fault system. This means that an employee can be compensated for an injury resulting from a work accident, even if the accident was the fault of the employee.

For example, let’s say a factory worker is carrying a heavy object improperly, and as a result, the employee accidentally drops the object on his or her foot. If the worker’s employer has workers’ compensation insurance, the injury will be covered. It will be considered irrelevant that the employee was at fault for the accident.

But what if the injury wasn’t an accident at all? If the employee intentionally caused the injury, then the situation will be treated quite differently. In this case, the employee would not only be considered ineligible for workers’ compensation benefits – he or she would be guilty of workers’ compensation fraud.

California Laws Prohibiting Workers’ Compensation Fraud

Under Section 1871.4 of the California Insurance Code, it is unlawful to “make or cause to be made a knowingly false or fraudulent material statement or material misrepresentation for the purpose of obtaining or denying any compensation.” This means that it is not only illegal for an employee to make a false statement in order to collect workers’ compensation – it is also illegal for an employer (or anyone else) to make a false statement in order to prevent someone from collecting workers’ compensation.

The California Penal Code also prohibits workers’ compensation fraud. Under Section 550, it is illegal to:

Knowingly make or cause to be made any false or fraudulent claims for payment of a health care benefit.
Knowingly submit a claim for a health care benefit that was not used by, or on behalf of, the client.
Knowingly present multiple claims for payment of the same health care benefit with the intent to defraud.
Knowingly present for payment any undercharges for health care benefits on behalf of a specific claimant – unless overcharges for the same client are present for reconciliation at the same time.

The Code specifically states that for the offenses described above, the term “health care benefit” includes workers’ compensation benefits.

If You Have Questions

As you can see, both employees and employers can face legal penalties if they are found to have committed workers’ compensation fraud. If you have any concerns about whether you are handling a workers’ compensation claim properly, you may wish to consult an attorney. If you are located in the Santa Rosa area, you can call or email the employment and labor law attorneys at Beck Law P.C., who can answer your legal questions.

Can An Employer Fire An Employee For Discussing A Raise?

February 24, 2015 by Beck Law P.C.

Can an employer fire an employee for discussing a raise? You have a great Office Supervisor that deserves additional compensation for her dependable work. You decide to reward her with a fantastic performance review and an excellent raise. But, because not all of your your employees are exceptional and you have only so much money to go around, you would prefer that the Office Supervisor keep her raise to herself and not share this information with her co-workers. As she leaves your office, you tell her: By the way, I would prefer you not tell anyone about your raise. If you do, it may cause a lot of disruption in the office, and hurt other employee’s feelings. Actually, I need to trust that you will not tell anyone in this office or you may lose your job over it.

From an employer’s point of view, this statement may seem like a good reminder, given what you think about the other employees, how fairly you want to compensate the other employees, and how much you appreciate the hard work and dedication of this particular employee over the others, given that cash flow is tight. You know your business and what your limits are, and you just don’t want to deal with all the other employees’ complaints. The bottom line is you want the raise to go to the person who earned it, you believe it is reasonable to ask that some things remain private, and frankly, you don’t want to have to explain yourself.

Can you say this to your employee? The answer is: NO. In fact, it is illegal.

Under the National Labor Relations Act, employers cannot prevent employees from discussing wages, salaries, raises, evaluations, cuts in pay, bonuses, benefits, or anything related to their employment among themselves. Employees may discuss ALL WORKING conditions among themselves and they are free to organize, share information and band together as a group. As taken from the NLRB website:

“The law we enforce gives employees the right to act together to try to improve their pay and working conditions, with or without a union. If employees are fired, suspended, or otherwise penalized for taking part in protected group activity, the National Labor Relations Board will fight to restore what was unlawfully taken away. These rights were written into the original 1935 National Labor Relations Act and have been upheld in numerous decisions by appellate courts and by the U.S. Supreme Court”

More specifically, Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act clearly states:

“Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all such activities.”

You may then wonder, can I as an employer discuss one employee’s raise with another employee? The answer is again: NO.

Whereas employees can discuss all work related information with each other, you as an employer must protect the privacy of every employee, and you are not allowed to discuss information regarding one employee with another employee, unless that employee is a supervisor; and even then, information can only be shared that is relevant/necessary for the supervisor to do the job, and nothing more. For example: An employer and a supervisor may discuss an employee’s bonus only if that employee is working directly under that supervisor. An employer may not “tell” an employee anything about another employee’s bonus. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, California Labor Law, Employee Rights Tagged With: Petaluma Labor Lawyer, petaluma lafbor attorney, Santa Rosa Labor Attorney, Santa Rosa Labor Lawyer, Ukiah Labor Attorney, Ukiah Labor Lawyer

Understanding California Employment Retaliation Laws

October 22, 2014 by Beck Law P.C.

Employment retaliation occurs when an employee is fired, demoted, or faces any other negative employment consequence, after the employee exercises a right protected under federal, state or local law. Common forms that employment retaliation can take include firing, demoting or taking any adverse action against an employee because that employee has:

Reported or threatened to report any illegal activities of an employer;
Filed or participated in a civil suit and/or investigation of an employer;
Participated in labor union or similar activities that involve the employee’s right to free association and expression;
Complained about employment conditions; and/or
Filed a complaint against the employer with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement Division.

California Laws and Protection Against Employer Retaliation

In California, there are an assortment of employment laws in place that provide employees with protection from retaliation in the workplace. The most important is the California Labor Code, which outlines the protected activities that employees can engage in without fear of retaliation. The Code also outlines prohibited employer activities that will be deemed employment retaliation if proven. These prohibited employer activities include:

An employer cannot retaliate against an employee, nor adopt, create, enforce any regulation, rule or policy that prevents or prohibits an employee from disclosing information to the government and/or law enforcement agencies, when the employee has reasonable cause to believe that the information will disclose a violation of or noncompliance with federal and/or state rules, regulations and/or statutes;
An employer cannot retaliate against an employee who refuses to participate in any activity that would result in a violation or noncompliance with federal and/or state statutes, regulations and/or rules; and
An employer cannot retaliate against an employee who has exercised their rights in any former employment.

Employment Retaliation Investigations

The California Retaliation Complaint Unit is the agency that investigates complaints of employer retaliation. Furthermore, all employees in California have the right to discuss the difficulties they have been facing in the workplace with the California Labor Commissioner Office, and with any other law enforcement or government agency. If you chose to do so, your employer cannot suspend, discipline, demote or fire you because you have provided information to these state agencies.

An employment retaliation complaint can be filed against employers, employment organizations, labor unions and trade organization. Employment retaliation complaints must be filed with California’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE). An employment retaliation complaint must be filed within six months following the occurrence of the alleged retaliatory act. However, complaints can be filed within one year of occurrence for complaints filed under Labor Code sections 230(c) and 230.1, within two years for complaints brought under section 1197.5, and no later than 90 days after the occurrence of actions filed under section 1596.88 of the California Health and Safety Code.

If you feel that you have experienced employment retaliation in the workplace in Sonoma County, Mendocino County or Lake County California and would like to exercise your rights, Contact the employment and labor law attorneys here at Beck Law P.C.

Filed Under: Blog, California Employment Law, Employee Retaliation, Employee Rights Tagged With: petaluma employment retaliation lawyer, santa rosa employment retaliation attorney, ukiah employment retaliation attorney

Can I Be Reimbursed For Business Calls Made From My Personal Cell Phone?

October 1, 2014 by Beck Law P.C.

Can I be reimbursed for business calls made from my personal cell phone? According to a recent California court decision – yes. Employers in the state of California may wish to review their reimbursement policies following a decision from a California appeals court. In its decision, the court held that employers in California must reimburse employees for business calls made on employees’ personal cell phones.

The Recent Court Decision

In the court case, the plaintiff, a customer services manager for a food delivery company, sued his former employer on his behalf and filed a class action on behalf of other employees for the employer’s failure to reimburse them for business calls made on their personal cell phones.

In an earlier decision, the trial court disagreed with the class action because it said that such a case depended on too many individual issues, such as the type of plan or whether an individual paid for his or her cell phone.

The appeals court disagreed, stating:

“We hold that when employees must use their personal cell phones for work-related calls, Labor Code section 2802 requires the employer to reimburse them. Whether the employees have cell phone plans with unlimited minutes or limited minutes, the reimbursement owed is a reasonable percentage of their cell phone bills.”

The appellate court wrote in it decision that it was irrelevant whether an employee had unlimited minutes or actually paid his or her own cell phone bill because, “[t]o show liability under section 2802, an employee need only show that he or she was required to use a personal cell phone to make work-related calls, and he or she was not reimbursed.”

What is Labor Code Section 2802?

California Labor Code section 2802, which requires an employer to indemnify employees for all business-related expenses.

After this court’s decision, it appears that this law applies to employer reimbursement for business calls made by employees on their personal cell phones, even if the cell phone plan has unlimited calling.

How will employers reimburse employees?

Employers may wish to update their cell phone and reimbursement policies in light of the recent court decision. Employers may choose one of the following options for cell phone reimbursement:

Update policies to make cell phone calls reimbursable expenses. How the company determines the method of reimbursement may vary, although the process may be cumbersome with many employees on different cell phone plans. According to the court’s decision, if the actual cost of the call cannot be determined, employers should reimburse employees a “reasonable percentage”.
Employers who regularly require their employees to use a cell phone for work may consider providing employees with cell phones for business. This will avoid having to calculate the reimbursement amount each month.
Employers who determine that cell phones are not needed by employees may update their policies to provide that personal cell phones should not be used for work purposes.

Are you experiencing trouble at work?

It’s not always clear to employees if their employer is complying with the law. Sometimes, it takes an experienced employment attorney to advise you on your current employment situation. The attorneys at Beck Law P.C. have years of experience dealing with all types of employment law issues, including discrimination, wrongful termination, wage and hour matters, and many other problems that arise in the workplace.

If you have a labor and employment law matter you wish to discuss, please contact Beck Law P.C. at 707-576-7175 to speak to a Santa Rosa labor – employment attorney and make an appointment for a confidential consultation.

Filed Under: Blog, California Employment Law, Employee Rights Tagged With: California employment attorney, california labor attorney, Labor attorney santa rosa, Labor lawyer petaluma, labor lawyer ukiah

How Long do I Have to Sue My Employer?

September 9, 2014 by Beck Law P.C.

How Long do I Have to Sue My Employer? If your potential suit is in regards to a Fair Employment and Housing Act Violation, earlier this year, a California Court of Appeals released a decision regarding an employee’s claim under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). The decision is the first to address the issue of how long an employee has to file a claim, that length of time also known as the statute of limitations. (Non-FEHA claims: intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent hiring)

Fair Employment and Housing Act

FEHA prevents discrimination in employment on the basis of a variety of reasons, including:

Age (over 40);
Race;
Marital status;
Gender; and
Sexual orientation.

FEHA also protects employees from retaliation for reporting discrimination in the workplace. Employees may file private lawsuits under the FEHA, but they first must go to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing to exhaust their administrative remedies. An employee has one year from the date of the discriminatory act to file a claim with the Department to seek what is referred to as a right to sue letter.

Employers Cannot Shorten the Time to Sue under the FEHA

The employee in the case, Ellis v. U.S. Security Associates et al., worked as a security guard for a company in Northern California and alleged that she was subjected to sexual harassment by a supervisor. As the court’s decision details, Ms. Ellis reported unwanted sexual advances and unrealized promises to raise her rate of pay. Ms. Ellis filed a claim with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing and received a right to sue letter. She then filed a lawsuit against her former employer.

The lower court dismissed Ms. Ellis’ claims because she had signed an employment agreement when she started working for the security company in which she agreed that she only had 6 months to bring any discrimination claims. While parties to agreements sometimes do agree to shorten the statute of limitations, the practice is one that has been met with varying success throughout the country. In this particular instance, the Court of Appeals determined that the provision in the contract shortening the statute of limitations was against public policy and it reversed the lower court’s decision.

The Court of Appeals’ decision on public policy was based on the premise that the FEHA is designed to protect employees against discrimination and retaliation in the workplace and provides remedies for employees who have experienced either. The FEHA also requires employees to exhaust all administrative remedies. An employee who follows the rules of the FEHA and exhausts all administrative remedies will likely not be able to sue within a shortened amount of time as allowed by an employment contract. Therefore, if enforced, the 6-month time period that Ms. Ellis agreed to in her employment contract would have the result of not allowing Ms. Ellis to pursue her claims under the FEHA. The court determined that this was against public policy and the purpose of the FEHA.

Contact Us for Legal Help

Do you feel you have been harassed or discriminated against at your place of employment? The labor and employment attorneys at Beck Law P.C. have experience litigating employment lawsuits, including sexual harassment and retaliation cases and can advise you on these types of matters. Please contact us if online or by phone at 707-576-7175 to schedule a consultation with one of our attorneys.

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Filed Under: Blog, Employee Rights, Employment Law Tagged With: employment attorney, employment lawyer, Labor Attorney, Labor Lawyer