Posted on 10/11/2006 9:20:01 PM PDT by SmithL
A former reporter for the embattled Santa Barbara News-Press sued the paper Wednesday, claiming it failed to keep accurate time records and stiffed employees out of overtime pay.
The lawsuit seeks class-action status for as many as 200 past and present employees.
The suit claims the newspaper failed to pay overtime to employees who worked more than eight hours a day or more than 40 hours a week. It also alleges the News-Press didn't provide its employees with meal and rest periods required by California law.
"It is common for employers to unintentionally violate technical violation of California's strict employment laws," said plaintiffs' attorney Bruce Anticouni, who filed the lawsuit in Santa Barbara Superior Court. "However, in my opinion, the alleged News-Press violations appear to have been willful, which would allow for the award of penalties to the affected employees."
The legal action marks the latest in a bitter dispute between employees and owner Wendy McCaw. A total of 16 employees have resigned since July, when nearly every top editor quit amid complaints that McCaw meddled in the newsroom.
McCaw's spokeswoman, Agnes Huff, said she couldn't comment because the newspaper's attorneys hadn't seen the lawsuit.
Last week, the newspaper filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board over a Sept. 27 election in which employees decided 33-6 to join the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
This just gets better and better.
Top editors resign at Santa Barbara News-Press
AP ^ | 7/6/6 | GREG RISLING
Posted on 07/06/2006 7:36:05 PM PDT by SmithL
Los Angeles -- Santa Barbara News-Press Editor Jerry Roberts, four other top editors and a columnist quit to protest moves by the owner that they say undermine the paper's credibility.
The editors, who resigned Wednesday and Thursday, said owner Wendy McCaw and her closest associates have become increasingly meddlesome. They also pointed to the appointment of Travis Armstong to acting publisher while he serves as editorial page editor.
Overtime laws need to be removed, they interfere with the free market.
Class actions need to be scaled back or phased out entirely.
If a person doesn't want to work that 41st hour for regular pay, the newspaper should have the right to fire them and go out and get someone who is willing to work 60 hours a week at straight time.
I take it you're against weekends?
< I take it you're against weekends? >
It doesn't matter if I am for or against weekends, I am in no place to tell other workers that they must take the weekend off, if someone wants to work every day of the week for straight time, that should be their constitutional right. It's time to restore full constitutional rights to business owners and also to employees who currently have the laws tilted in their favor.
Yes it does. Do you think that our society is better with or without weekends? Because in the absence of positive intervention of some sort, weekends will disappear. You can't ignore the policy consequences of ideology.
Greedy liberal robber barons.
< Do you think that our society is better with or without weekends? >
I think our society is better off without weekends, if I want to go to the hospital on a Sunday, I hope there is a doctor there that doesn't adhere to this concept of a weekend, which is stated nowhere in the Constitution. If my car gets a flat tire on a Saturday, I like knowing that there are repair shops open on the weekends. If it wasn't for truckers who are willing to be away from their homes on weekends, many on the east coast wouldn't have produce that is so fresh. I like those consequences.
As for what the Constitution says, it's irrelevent. In 1789, the percentage of Americans earning wages was tiny, so this was a non-issue. By the 19th century however, in an unregulated nearly pure laissez-faire system, 6 day weeks were the minimum and 7 day weeks were not rare. If you eliminate safe guards, we will return to 7 day weeks. Your problem is you're taking an ideology -- normally a good ideology at that -- and trying to pretend that the practical consequences are immaterial. They aren't.
So I ask you again: in your opinion, would a seven day week be a good thing or a bad thing?
< So I ask you again: in your opinion, would a seven day week be a good thing or a bad thing? >
For people that choose to work 7 days a week, it would be a great thing, they will be allowed to exercise their constitutional rights.
For people that don't want to work work 7 days a week, all they have to do is simply not take a job that requires them to work 7 days a week.
Currently we have a nonstated generally-accepted 5 day a week workweek, that doesn't mean that everybody in the country right now is working 5 days and only 5 days a week. If some employees want to work 7 days a week for straight time (if the OT unconstitutional laws were repealed), that is not going to force everyone to work 7 days a week, and we know that is the case because currently there is a disparity of the number of days worked by employees, some work 5 and some work 3, the disparity will not be removed if the OT laws are removed.
You were the hall monitor in school weren't you.
< My point is that there are serious public policy consequences if you start having people work seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. >
Say that to newspaper boys and girls, they're up before 6a.m. 365-days a year and some of them are only 14 years old and younger, and then they turn around and go to school after it for about 7 hours a day, they're not hiring any class-action scumbag lawyers.
< You were the hall monitor in school weren't you. >
No, I was in the classroom reading the Constitution, and making sure not to read parts that aren't there.
Except that wouldn't be the choice. Any more than people have the choice to work every other minute now. Just as has already happened before (see "Century, the 19th") the absence of safe guards will generate a competitive market dynamic that will lead to 7 day weeks. Would it be better than the status quo for a majority of American workers to work 7 day weeks? Yes or no?
Since you're an apparent fan of 19th century employment law (see "Seven Day Workweek"), I'm guessing your problem with newspaper boys is that they're not out working in factories and coalmines...
Gotta love the consequences to families, restaurants, movies, etc.
As a previous poster mentioned, I fail to see this as a constitutional issue.
making sure not to read parts that aren't there.
Maybe you could point out the parts that require me to be the company bitch or starve.
And you're suffering from a serious case of excess constitutionalism. Just because the Constitution is a good legal framework doesn't mean the Constitution is the ultimate repository of all positive knowledge of proper public policy. This is the Constitution we're talking about, not tablets from heaven.
< Since you're an apparent fan of 19th century employment law (see "Seven Day Workweek"), I'm guessing your problem with newspaper boys is that they're not out working in factories and coalmines... >
I'm not too concerned if it's 19th century or any other century, the Constitution came before the 19th century and it still needs to be protected today.
If a 13 year old kid can work 365 days a year, which is currently legal and commonplace, 30 year olds should have be able to work seven days a week also at ANY wage that they work out with their employer, the minimum wage needs to be removed also, adults need to have the constitutional rights returned to them in respect to what wages they want to form an agreement at.
< Under your scenario how long before every employer requires every employee to work 7 days/12 hrs a day, or else. >
Under my scenario, how long before every employee informs their employer that they refuse to work 7 days a week, the employers cannot fire all of the employees.
It's a 2 way street. Employment laws that are tilted in the favor of employees need to be repealed.
No part requires you to be a b*tch for the company, as you say, you are always free to go across the street and start your own company.
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