Update

[jarandhel]

My manager from Spanky's just called me a few minutes ago. She was asked to by the owner of Spanky's, who says he's coming down there himself today to sort out payroll and that everyone should get their money within two weeks. Anyone else notice how the deadline for how long it will take to get paid keeps getting lengthened?

I told her flat out that I don't think any of us, myself included, will return to work unless we have our money in hand already, if even then. We just don't trust these promises anymore. With good reason, I think.

Comments

[aki-dreaming.livejournal.com]

Get. A. Lawyer.
This is ridiculous.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

And it just got more so. I called my manager back a few minutes ago to ask her to call me and let me know when they got there tonight, I wanted to come down and speak to them in person myself. Now the story is that it's just the owner's mother (the real owner) who is coming down and she is just picking up the payroll paperwork and taking it to the Lexington store so that it can get worked out.

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

I'm with Piperdawn on this. Get a lawyer.

Hell, seeing as there's lots of employees affected, you could probably get class action on this. Contact a local law school or your local bar association (you can get the listing from directory assistance) and ask them if they have anyone who'd be willing to do a class action lawsuit for either contingency (aka they don't get paid if you don't win) or on pro bono status...at the least, the bar association could help you.

Hell, you could even theoretically sue for back wages in small claims court, depending on what Virginia's limit is (the smallest I've ever seen in a state is $1500, and that's here in KY; most of the time it's more like $3000-5000; you can probably find out for sure at http://www.nolo.com)...they ARE in breach of contract at this point.

(Yes, I've seen companies sued for this. One of my hubby's former employers is presently having the shit sued out of them because they failed to pay severances packages for people they laid off :3)

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

Addendum:

Seeing as you noted to me that the miserable gits haven't paid anyone since JULY...

Before contacting even a lawyer on this, contact the federal and state labor boards. Seriously. (Between them not giving you *federally mandated* break and lunch times, not paying you, not paying final paychecks, and probably skimping on OTHER stuff...let's just say both the Virginia and federal Departments of Labor can spank their arses but GOOD and probably, at the very least, make them pay you all back pay. Yes, this applies even if they're in receivership)

http://www.dli.state.va.us/whatwedo/labor_law/forms.html has forms on how to file complaint for unpaid wages.

http://www.dli.state.va.us/whatwedo/enforcement/complaint_p1.html has info on other workplace violations.

http://www.nolo.com has a lot of good info on this sort of thing, including (reference from there) http://tinyurl.com/495ao (yes, tinyurl'd) in reference to a similar issue.

http://www.dol.gov reaches the federal Department of Labor, which has more info on (federal) fair payment laws.

You will also want to look up info both at VA's website and on a federal level (at http://www.osha.gov) re possible violations of safe labour laws. One biggie you've let me know about is failure to provide breaktimes and lunchtimes (federal law requires 15m breaks for every four hours of work, 30 minute lunch for every six hours; if they don't provide them, they're in violation of OSHA regs; seeing as they aren't paying their employees and aren't enforcing other OSHA laws, they could be violating other laws specifically in regards to food service)

One thing you WILL want to do is to contact other employees and get them to file complaint, too, to show a pattern of this (this way, VA will be even more likely to take action).

There's also a possibility you may want to look into--you've mentioned a like for the employees to buy it out; consider talking to the Small Business Administration about either that or starting your own business (http://www.sba.gov has info; they have loan programs for first time business owners, so it may seriously be something to look into)

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

Addendum to the addendum:

The specific branch of the (fed) Department of Labor you want is the Wage/Hour Division, and in particular, their enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act (which is THE biggie law re work): http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/flsa/

http://www.dol.gov/elaws/flsa.htm has a pretty good listing there, too :3

Since there are records including paperwork dating to July, they're pretty much in material breach, I don't think you're going to have a problem proving this...

Rip 'em a new one :3