The Law at Work: Officer of Employer May Be Liable for Unpaid Wage Penalties and Fees
A corporate officer is rarely legally responsible for paying damages to injured employees. A corporate officer, for example, generally is not personally liable for wages the corporate employer didn’t pay.
But what about the civil penalties the law imposes on top of unpaid overtime and minimum wages? May a corporate officer who causes that compensation not to be paid be held personally responsible for the resulting penalties -- even if the individual was acting within his job responsibilities? If employees successfully sue to recover those penalties, may the individual who caused the employees not to be paid be held responsible, as an individual, for the employees’ substantial attorneys’ fees?
The San Diego division of the California Court of Appeal recently concluded that, under the plain language of California employment statutes, the answer to both questions is yes. In his The Law at Work column in The San Diego Union-Tribune, Shareholder Dan Eaton examines the case of Marco Antonio Atempa et al. v. Paolo Pedrazzani to explain further.
View the full article here.