California Injury Attorney Blog

A few weeks ago, the Internal Revenue Service paid out a very large whistleblower award to an accountant who reported fraud on the part of his former company in the payment of federal income tax. The award was the first to be issued to a whistleblower by the IRS. As California whistleblower lawyers, we know the importance of these cases to the public welfare. Whistleblowers are people who have the courage to come forward when they see wrongdoing in their workplace.

Recently, a very different matter was settled with the federal government involving whistleblowers. Although the companies deny wrongdoing, DynCorp International Inc., the largest U.S. contractor in Afghanistan and its subcontractor have settled a case involving what the government claimed were construction work and other services that were not actually performed. The company has agreed to pay $7.7 million and its subcontracter $1 million, to resolve claims that costs for services that it was alleged to have performed in Iraq were inflated.

The lawsuit was apparently filed by former employees who became what are known as whistleblowers. They informed the government of the false claims for payment that were being made by these companies when services had not in fact been rendered. The whistleblowers will be receiving about $481,710 for their honesty in this matter.

In recent years, whistleblowers from San Francisco to New York City have become more common and well known. The whistleblowers involved in energy, banking, pharmaceutical and other industries have been rewarded when they advise the government that their companies are committing fraud or other wrongdoing.

The San Francisco whistleblower attorneys of Hersh & Hersh represent whistleblowers and can answer questions concerning the procedures and protections involved for employees who report fraud or other wrongdoing on the part of their employer. To learn more please contact our San Francisco whistleblower law experts to have a confidential consultation at no charge regarding your concerns.

Take Heart, Take a Break
Recently, CNN Health reported that overtime hours can be hazardous to your health. A new study found that those who work in excess of 10 hours a day are more susceptible to heart problems, including heart attack and heart disease. At seven hours the danger of these diseases lessens. All the more reason to make sure that if you are working overtime you are paid for it and that you pay attention to your health.

The California Injury Attorney Blog has posted previously on the ways that employers attempt to avoid paying workers appropriate compensation by classifying them as exempt. The financial impact on workers who are misclassified by their employers is real and damaging. That is why it is so important to know your rights to overtime pay.

And now there is a new potential harm to those clocking long hours on the job with or without appropriate pay -- heart problems.

Balancing Act
The suspected cause of the heart problems for those working long hours is the lack of time to relax and alleviate stress. Long hours can be heartfelt, but not in a good way. Even if you don't feel particularly stressed, your heart can be suffering on the job

The lead author of the study, Dr. Marianna Virtanen at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and University College London says the link between heart health and work hours has to do with balance. It's a risk factor that is overlooked if "you do not have enough time to take care of your health," says Dr. Virtanen.

The study included the health impact to over 6,000 civil servants in Britain who were followed for over a decade. Although the workers in the study were white-collar workers, the findings might well be applicable to those working in other jobs that require long hours and limited time for personal health.

If you are working long hours and you believe you may be entitled to overtime pay, please contact the San Francisco law firm of Hersh & Hersh for a free evaluation of your situation. We have experience helping workers get the pay to which they are entitled and we can evaluate your rights at no charge to you.

Don't let long hours go unpaid. And take time to take care of yourself and your heart health.

Related Web Resources

For more information on your right to over time pay, visit the California Department of Industrial Relations.

In these tough economic times, families are working harder than ever to put food on the table and receive the pay they have rightfully earned. One of the ways you and your family can protect yourselves is to know your rights with regard to wage and hour laws and overtime pay provisions.

The California Injury Attorney Blog will be posting from time to time on workers' rights and wage and hour claims, so that readers begin to educate themselves on their rights.

There are many nuances to the laws that protect workers and it is important to consult with experts who can help you understand your rights.

California has many protections in place to make sure that workers receive their overtime pay. Employers are not allowed to classify employees as managing themselves or in a sales job, just to avoid paying overtime.

Many employers try to avoid paying overtime pay, giving meal and rest breaks by misclassifying employees. That is, they call them "management" or "sales," for example, when they are actually doing some form of labor or selling is only a small fraction of how they spend their time on the job. This is misclassification and it is illegal and you could be entitled to back pay of OT, penalties and other compensation.

Generally, overtime pay applies to a nonexempt employee who is 18 years old or older or a minor employee who is 16 or 17 years old and is legally allowed to work. Nonexempt employees may work eight hours per day or 40 hours per week. But once more hours are involved, the employer must pay additional wages such as overtime pay.

Although it is difficult to generalize, if you are a person employed in a job that is not a professional licensed job like a lawyer, a doctor or is not a technical job like a highly skilled computer programmer, you might well be a nonexempt employee.

Assuming you are a nonexempt employee, you are likely entitled to earn overtime pay from your employer. What this means is that once you have worked the permissible number of hours allowed by law in a day or in a week, your employer may be required to pay you as follows:

"One and one-half times the employee's regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of eight hours up to and including 12 hours in any workday, and for the first eight hours worked on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek; and

Double the employee's regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 12 hours in any workday and for all hours worked in excess of eight on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek."

Again, this applies if you are not exempt from overtime and are not in a classification of employee that is not entitled to earn overtime. There are also some exceptions to the general overtime pay rules and for certain classifications of employees overtime pay is calculated differently.

Related Web Resources

For more reading on overtime pay rights, please click here.

Continue reading "Know Your Overtime Pay Rights" »

In a very understated press release, Pfizer, Inc (no, it's not a typo there is no period after Inc in the Pfizer name) has just announced its settlement with the Justice Department. The headline reads "Pfizer Concludes Previously Disclosed Settlement Agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice Regarding Past Promotional Practices."

Contrast that with the AP headline "Pfizer to Pay Record $2.3 Billion Penalty Over Off-Label Promotions."

This is big. And no matter how the facts are spun, this is big.

As part of this settlement, Pfizer will pay a $1.2 billion criminal penalty. The largest criminal fine in United States history.

What happened? The government found that the company engaged in the promotion of four prescription drugs to treat medical conditions that had not been approved by federal regulators.

This meant that the company was selling these drugs, including Bextra, for uses that had not been approved by the FDA. Off-label use of drugs is not an uncommon practice. But drug companies are not allowed to promote their drugs for medical conditions for which those drugs have not been approved -- as occurred in this case.

Pfizer senior vice president and general counsel, Amy Shulman, stated that "corporate integrity is an absolute priority..."

But New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo had some choice words to describe the company's actions in this case. "Pfizer ripped off New Yorkers and taxpayers across the country to pad its bottom line," he said. "Pfizer's corrupt practices went so far as sending physicians on exotic junkets as well as wining and dining health care professionals to persuade them to prescribe the company's drugs for patients in taxpayer-funded programs."

As part of this settlement, Pfizer will pay $1 billion to compensate government healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Six whistleblowers who first brought these practices to light will also share in the recovery in this matter.

Continue reading "What Price Off-Label? For Pfizer -- It's a Huge Penalty " »