Common wage violations in the cable installation industry include:
Piece Rate Violations: Cable installation companies often pay their cable installers and technicians on a “piece-rate” basis. Although the company may pay its technicians by a “piece-rate” compensation system, the company must still track all hours worked (including travel between jobs, time spent at the shop, time spent waiting between jobs, and work performed at home) and pay overtime in addition to the piece rates when the technicians work more than forty (40) hours in a workweek. Calculating overtime wages in a piece rate compensation system is not difficult. Despite how easily overtime pay can be calculated, many cable installation companies fail to pay proper overtime wages or any overtime wages. You may have a claim for unpaid overtime wages if you worked as a cable installer or technician within the last three years, and the following pay practices occurred to you:
•Employer did not record any of your hours worked (or did not make you record your hours worked). •Employer did not pay any overtime pay when you worked more than forty hours in a week. •Employer did not allow you to record all of your hours worked. •Employer did not include in your total hours worked time spent driving from job to job, time spent at the shop, time spent waiting for customers between jobs, or time spent working from home. •Employer paid overtime wages but the overtime wages did not reflect your actual hours worked.
Independent Contractor Violations: Another common violation occurs when cable installation companies classify some or all of their cable installers and technicians as “independent contractors” or “1099 employees” in order to avoid the federal and state overtime and minimum wage requirements. This practice can result in workers being cheated out of minimum wages, overtime pay, retirement and/or health benefits, FICA taxes, workers’ compensation and unemployment benefits to which they would otherwise be entitled. An employer’s use of a 1099 form does not automatically make a cable installer or technician an independent contractor. Instead, courts consider several important factors to determine whether a worker has been improperly classified as an independent contractor, including:
(1) the degree of control exercised by the employer over the workers,
(2) the workers’ opportunity for profit and loss and the workers’ investment into the business,
(3) the workers’ investment into tools and materials,
(4) the degree of specialized skill and independent initiative required to perform the work,
(5) the duration of the working relationship, and
(6) the extent to which the work is an integral part of the employer’s business.
No one factor is determinative; instead, courts look at all circumstances of a working relationship to determine the proper classification.
This is CABL.com posting #329807. Tiny Link: cabl.co/mbxXD
