What do you call this Termination?

[26yrs11mos]

What is the name of your state? California
Dear Sir:
First let me greet you a happy Monday morning, August 11, 2004. I am writing this letter on behalf of my wife who recently got terminated last week and very distraught and depressed. My wife has been with this company for 26 yrs and 11 months. Her cause of termination is Theft or Misappropriation of Company Property. Her company is a Title Insurance company. Her job is to type all title policy, prelims, commercial title policy, etc. Three years ago, their company introduced the "Incentive pay program" in replacement of the regular overtime pay. The incentive program is applied provided the employee meets the production goal of 40 files. The company pays each file based on each categories. Example, single form policy is $1.50, double is $3.00, triple is $4.00, etc. My wife is a confirmed "workaholic". The company requires a minimum of 40 files regardless of the type of policy, before she can qualify for the incentives. My wife regular production per day is between 35 to 40 files plus the regular 40 files for production. Therefore, incentives is 30 to 40 a day. Number of hours worked for her everyday is 15 to 16 hours. Her weekends and holidays is also a regular work hours. She produces between 120 to 160 files on weekend average. I don't know of anyone that can last this long and maintain accuracy on their production reports without the chance of error in submitting incentive production sheets. I know that she is overworked and fatigued. The constant interruptions at work for "rush" files are very common. Back in March or April of 2003, she was cited of 8 files over reported on her incentive sheet. Her reason was that due to interruptions, she forgot to erased these files on her production report. Her system of work is like this....in the morning she segregates these files as per category. Meaning, single, double, triple and other commercial policies are separated. She writes down all these file ahead of time in their correspondent numbers. She has been doing this system for 26yrs. After 26 yrs and 11 months of working for this company, last week she was fired because she allegedly turned in 8 additional files that are not typed last year. My wife never complains of the additional files she typed more than the normal required 40 files without the benefit of getting paid extra all throughout this years. Around early part of 2003, my wife made some complaints regarding the incentives rather than the regular overtime pay. She was told by her supervisor to just do what she was told and "Not" be concerned of the changes that the corporate office decided on as far as the incentive program is concerned. Now, they fired her because she turned in 8 additional files in her incentive report. Where is the justice on this? First, I believe they are trying to get away from the OVERTIME pay. My wife has earned numerous "AWARDS" with this company and one of them is the "EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR AWARD". Can you please give your professional feed back on this matter? Your response to this is greatly appreciated and I assure you that I can't use your opinion as a ground of evidence in the event of a lawsuit.

Sincerely yours

 

[Beth3]

A lawsuit for terminating her? Or a lawsuit over the manner in which they paid the incentive/overtime?

She had no legal grounds to contest her termination but whether the manner in which they paid overtime is lawful depends upon whether the incentive pay equaled at least time and a-half for all hours she worked in excess of 40 hours in each 7-day pay period. (I'm assuming your wife's job was non-exempt - hourly paid. If her position was exempt, she need not have been paid overtime at all.) If I recall correctly, CA also requires OT to be paid for hours worked in excess of 8 hours/day.

I suggest your wife contact CA's Department of Labor and discuss the compensation issue with them.

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state? California
Dear Sir:
First let me greet you a happy Monday morning, August 11, 2004. I am writing this letter on behalf of my wife who recently got terminated last week and very distraught and depressed. My wife has been with this company for 26 yrs and 11 months. Her cause of termination is Theft or Misappropriation of Company Property. Her company is a Title Insurance company. Her job is to type all title policy, prelims, commercial title policy, etc. Three years ago, their company introduced the "Incentive pay program" in replacement of the regular overtime pay. The incentive program is applied provided the employee meets the production goal of 40 files. The company pays each file based on each categories. Example, single form policy is $1.50, double is $3.00, triple is $4.00, etc. My wife is a confirmed "workaholic". The company requires a minimum of 40 files regardless of the type of policy, before she can qualify for the incentives. My wife regular production per day is between 35 to 40 files plus the regular 40 files for production. Therefore, incentives is 30 to 40 a day. Number of hours worked for her everyday is 15 to 16 hours. Her weekends and holidays is also a regular work hours. She produces between 120 to 160 files on weekend average. I don't know of anyone that can last this long and maintain accuracy on their production reports without the chance of error in submitting incentive production sheets. I know that she is overworked and fatigued. The constant interruptions at work for "rush" files are very common. Back in March or April of 2003, she was cited of 8 files over reported on her incentive sheet. Her reason was that due to interruptions, she forgot to erased these files on her production report. Her system of work is like this....in the morning she segregates these files as per category. Meaning, single, double, triple and other commercial policies are separated. She writes down all these file ahead of time in their correspondent numbers. She has been doing this system for 26yrs. After 26 yrs and 11 months of working for this company, last week she was fired because she allegedly turned in 8 additional files that are not typed last year. My wife never complains of the additional files she typed more than the normal required 40 files without the benefit of getting paid extra all throughout this years. Around early part of 2003, my wife made some complaints regarding the incentives rather than the regular overtime pay. She was told by her supervisor to just do what she was told and "Not" be concerned of the changes that the corporate office decided on as far as the incentive program is concerned. Now, they fired her because she turned in 8 additional files in her incentive report. Where is the justice on this? First, I believe they are trying to get away from the OVERTIME pay. My wife has earned numerous "AWARDS" with this company and one of them is the "EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR AWARD". Can you please give your professional feed back on this matter? Your response to this is greatly appreciated and I assure you that I can't use your opinion as a ground of evidence in the event of a lawsuit.

Sincerely yours

**A: based on the information provided, I do not see where your wife has any case as there was no discrimination and CA is an at will state.

 

[Beth3]

For the term, I agree entirely. On the incentive/OT issue, that may be another story. It's simply not possible to tell from the info provided whether the wife's employer met State and federal requirements for OT pay.

 

[HomeGuru]

For the term, I agree entirely. On the incentive/OT issue, that may be another story. It's simply not possible to tell from the info provided whether the wife's employer met State and federal requirements for OT pay.

**A: yes, I agree including the possible "requirement" to work weekends and holidays.