Jamie Zepeda Labor Contracting v. Department of Industrial etc.

I.

INTRODUCTION

California law requires that employers pay agricultural workers a minimum wage “on the established payday for the period involved.” (Cal. Code. Regs., tit. 8, § 11140, subd. (4)(B).) Labor Code section 2051 in turn requires farm labor contractors to establish weekly paydays for the payment of wages to their workers. In addition to these minimum wage provisions, the Labor Code’s final wage prompt payment provisions impose timing requirements on the payment of final wages to employees who are discharged (§ 201) or who quit (§ 202). If an employer “discharges” an employee within the meaning of the statute, “the wages earned and unpaid at the time of discharge are due and payable immediately.” (§ 201, subd. (a).) In addition, generally speaking, if an employee quits without notice, her wages become due and payable 72 hours thereafter, unless she has given 72 hours previous notice of her intention to quit, in which case the wages are due at the time of quitting. (§ 202, subd. (a).) An employer that “willfully fails to pay,” in accordance with sections 201 and 202, “any wages of an employee who is discharged or who quits” is subject to so-called waiting-time penalties…