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"Discharge" includes normal end of one-day assignment
July 10, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
A model worked for one day as agreed, and got paid two months later. She should have been paid immediately, and now might get $15,000 in penalties under California's wage and hour statute.
The statute imposes a penalty for delay in payment of wages. Wages are due immediately when an employer "discharges" an employee.
The issue for the California Supreme Court was whether it's a "discharge" when the original agreement between the company and the model was that the model would work for only one day.
Yes, that's a "discharge," triggering a duty of immediate payment of wages. Smith v. Superior Court (L'Oreal) (California 07/10/2006).
Quoting the unanimous decision:
A discharge is commonly understood as referring both to an involuntary termination from an ongoing termination relationship and to a release of an employee after completion of a specified job assignment or duration of time.
As a footnote, the penalty sought by the employee kicks in only if the company "willfully" failed to pay the wages in a timely manner, and the California Supreme Court expressed no opinion on that. Seems to me that at some point during a two-month delay it becomes "willful."
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Editor: Ross Runkel, Professor of Law Emeritus. email Ross@LawMemo.Com, Phone 503-399-8028. Copyright LawMemo, Inc.
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