Wage Law

Angie Wei, the Legislative Director for the California Labor Federation, wrote a letter to Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet asking her to withdraw her one-sided July 25, 2008 Memorandum to DLSE Staff, regarding Brinker Restaurant Corp. v Superior Court of San Diego County (Hohnbaum) (2008) __ Cal App. 4th ___, 2008 WL 2806613. The letter is well written, and is must-read material for anyone unfortunate enough to be preparing for a Berman hearing on a meal period or rest period case right now. Unfortunately, we suspect that Ms. Bradstreet is taking orders from someone who makes sure that important decisions get the "green light" from lobbyists for the California Chamber of Commerce and/or the California Restaurant Association, so we would be surprised if the memorandum is withdrawn, even if the Supreme Court grants review of the Brinker case.

The Recorder had a blurb last week on its Ad Hominem (Opinion and Satire) page that overstated Brinker's effect dramatically. Under the "Bar-ometer", it reported that "A court says you can only file wage and hour cases on an individual basis. And no lawyer will take those cases." That's not a very accurate summation of the holding, and the claim that no lawyer will take those cases is quite untrue. Individual wage and hour cases are filed every day.

In a few days, we'll post links to the various blog posts, articles, client alerts and newsletters discussing the case. Legal updates, in and of themselves, are not billable, so it takes some of the defense firms a couple of weeks to get their articles, client alerts and newsletters out. We remember what it was like....