05/15/2022
The Tillmon Law Firm files lawsuit in Los Angeles County, California on behalf of a medical imaging specialist employed at a hospital. This lawsuit seeks recovery for various wage and hour violations suffered by this employee, including for 1) unpaid minimum wages, 2) unpaid overtime wages, 3) 30-minute meal period violations, 3) 10-minute rest period violations, 4) paystub information violations, 5) final pay waiting time penalties, 6) failure to reimburse for employment-related expenses, and 6) other related wage and hour employment violations.
This medical imaging specialist worked in a very busy hospital environment and his supervisors cut corners on his employment rights in order to make the imaging department run smoothly. The medical imaging specialist’s supervisors required him to attend outside courses and obtain licenses in several imaging modalities that he was not previously licensed in, such as CT Scan imaging, MRI imaging, and Fluoroscopy imaging. The imaging specialist’s written performance evaluations regularly stated that he was expected to attend these courses and eventually become licensed in these additional imaging modalities. The imaging specialist’s supervisors also required him to spend extensive time shadowing senior imaging specialists as part of his training in the imaging modalities that he was not yet licensed in. The imaging specialist, however, was never paid for any of the time that he spent traveling to/from and attending the imaging classes held at universities requiring several hours of commute time per week, nor was he ever paid for any of the time that he spent shadowing the more-experienced imaging specialists as part of his training. Further yet, the hospital never reimbursed the imaging specialist for any of the university tuition that he paid in order to attend the imaging classes. This lawsuit seeks unpaid wages for the time that this imaging specialist spent traveling to/from and attending the imaging classes, as well as for the time that he spent shadowing the senior imaging specialists as part of his training in the additional imaging modalities that he was not yet licensed in. This lawsuit also seeks reimbursement for this imaging specialist for the tuition fees that he paid to the universities in order to attend the imaging classes.
The imaging specialist’s supervisors regularly required him to clock out of the employee timekeeping system for his lunch break and to continue working while clocked out. On certain days when he had too much work to take a lunch break and he did not clock out of the timekeeping system himself, the imaging specialist’s supervisors would simply clock him out themselves in order to create a false paper trail showing that he had taken his lunch break. Employees are generally entitled to a duty-free thirty-minute meal period before working any more than five full hours in a day. Employees are also generally entitled to a second duty-free thirty-minute meal period before working any more than ten full hours in a day. The remedy under the law for a meal period violation is that an affected employee is entitled to recover one hour of pay at his or her regular rate of pay for each day on which a meal period violation occurs. This lawsuit seeks to recover one hour of pay per day for this medical imaging specialist for the duty-free 30-minute meal period violations he suffered on a daily basis.
Because the hospital’s demands on the imaging specialist were always non-stop, he regularly had no chance to take any of his 10-minute breaks during his workday. Employees are generally entitled to at least one 10-minute rest period if their workday is at least 3.5 hours long, employees are entitled to at least two 10-minute rest periods if their workday is anything more than 6 hours in length, and employees are entitled to at least three 10-minute rest periods if their workday is anything more than 10 hours in length. The remedy under the law for a 10-minute rest period violation is that an affected employee is entitled to recover one hour of pay at his or her regular pay rate for each day on which a 10-minute rest period violation occurs. This lawsuit seeks to recover one hour of pay per day for this medical imaging specialist for the duty-free 10-minute rest period violations he suffered on a daily basis.
The term "duty-free" in the phrases "duty-free thirty-minute meal period" and "duty-free ten-minute rest period" is a very meaningful concept in this area of the law dealing with meal and rest periods. Duty-free means duty-free. Period. That is to say, if an employee is required to perform any duty whatsoever (no matter how slight the duty may be), then the meal period or rest period is not truly "duty-free" and a corresponding meal or rest period violation has occurred. So, if any of the following duties must be performed by an employee during any attempt to take a thirty-minute meal period or a ten-minute rest period, then the employee has not been relieved of all duties and a corresponding meal period violation or rest period violation has occurred:
- the employee is required to monitor a radio, walkie-talkie, pager, cellphone or any other communication device, whether the communication device belongs to the employer or whether it is the employee’s personal communication device;
- the employee is required to visually monitor any location within a business for possible arrival of customers;
- the employee is required to take meal or rest periods while in a car, van, bus, train, or other vehicle;
- the employee is not permitted to leave the employer's premises and go wherever he or she desires during their meal or rest period.
To learn more about the employment laws discussed above, please visit the Tillmon Law Firm website at www.TillmonLaw.com.
The Tillmon Law Firm accepts employment law cases on a “contingency fee” basis. Under a contingency fee arrangement, the client is NEVER responsible to pay any attorney fees to the attorney unless and until the attorney is first able to obtain a settlement or other money recovery for the client. The Tillmon Law Firm has been in operation since 2007 and has filed and handled more than 200 lawsuits on behalf of California employees throughout this time, in at least 29 different counties throughout all of California.
Please feel free to call The Tillmon Law Firm at (818) 849-6277 for a confidential consultation and evaluation of your potential lawsuit.
You may also visit The Tillmon Law Firm’s website for more information or to request a telephone call from Attorney Seth E. Tillmon. You may submit the short "Request Free Phone Consultation" form and Mr. Tillmon will personally call you to discuss your potential case: https://TillmonLaw.com/free-phone-consultation/
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The Tillmon Law Firm
16350 Ventura Blvd., Suite D
Encino, CA 91436
The Tillmon Law Firm represents employees throughout the ENTIRE state of California in order to ensure that employers are held accountable for violations of the labor and employment laws.
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The Tillmon Law Firm provides Employment Law representation to employees who have been wronged by the
