Top Employment Labor Law Firm in Los Angeles, California Simplifies California Tip Pooling Laws in Light of Recent CA Ruling in the Case of Avidor v. Sutter Place, Inc

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Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) August 23, 2013 -- Best Employment Labor Law Firm in Los Angeles, California, established by Rodney Mesriani, Esq., wants to help each and every employee, working mostly in service oriented establishments, understand their rights under California Labor Code Section 351 in light of the recent ruling handed down by Court of Appeals, Sixth District, California in the case of Avidor v. Sutter Place, Inc., 212 Cal. App. 4th 1439 (2013), where the Appellate Court ruled that a casino's policy of requiring card dealers to contribute a portion of their tips to a tip pool did not violate California law.

Top Employment and Labor Law attorney, Rodney Mesriani, restates California Labor Code Section 351, which mandates that no employer or agent shall collect, take, or receive any gratuity or a part thereof that is paid, given to, or left for an employee by a patron, or deduct any amount from wages due an employee on account of a gratuity, or require an employee to credit the amount, or any part thereof, of a gratuity against and as a part of the wages due the employee from the employer. Even a cursory reading of said Section 351 of the California Labor Code clearly provides that what the law prohibits is for employers or its agents to get a share in the tips that are generally called gratuities given or left to the employees by the clients, customers or patrons for satisfactory service rendered to the latter. "Accordingly, aside from the employer, any agent of the employer, including those who have authority to hire or fire employees or whose duties include supervising, directing or controlling the daily tasks or acts of employees is considered as a manager or agent of the employer and, therefore has also no right to share in the tips or gratuities given to service oriented employees," adds Mr. Mesriani. The foregoing considered, as rightly put by the Court of Appeals in the case of Avidor v. Sutter Place, Inc., however, California tip pooling law does not prohibit employers from creating or implementing tip pool guidelines in the workplace so long as all the tips and gratuities are divided among employees who are not employers or agents of employers.

In order not to be misled by different interpretations of California tip pooling laws, Mr. Mesriani enumerates usual violations committed by employers in relation to tip pooling programs implemented in the workplace. The most common violation of tip pooling is a system where even the employer or manager of the employer gets a share in the tips. Another common violation is the tip credit system where employers compute the tips received by employees and include these in the computation of an employee's minimum wage. Furthermore, another illegal practice will be charged credit card processing fees to employees who have been given tips through credit cards by customers. "The law is very clear that employees should be paid the tips that are given to them as gratuities and, therefore, employers cannot deduct credit card processing fees, charges or any service fee for processing an employee's tip through credit cards," stresses Mr. Mesriani, head of best Employment Labor Law Firm in Los Angeles.

Finally, Mr. Mesriani of the Mesriani Law Group, P.C., adds that, "The standard to determine whether tip pooling policy implemented by the employer is violative of labor law rights is the "fairness" test, meaning, as long as the tips are split up in a fair manner among all employees who are part of the "chain of service" and no tip goes to the employer and no service fees are charged by the employer for tip handling, then you can be assured that the tip pooling program in your workplace is lawful."

Mesriani Law Group's best Employment Labor Law Firm in Los Angeles, California are well respected in the legal community for their commitment in helping all California employees resolve labor law violations and issues, to include: Labor Code retaliation, meal and rest break violations, minimum wage violations, overtime violations, tip violations and wage and hour violations. They also help represent all employees with their employment and labor law concerns with: California Department of Labor, California Labor Commissioner, California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, Fair Labor Standards Act, Labor and Workforce Development Agency.

About Mesriani Law Group, P.C.

Mesriani Law Group is a Los Angeles, California based employment and labor law firm founded by Rodney Mesriani, Esq., with decades of experience in helping wrongful termination and employment discrimination and harassment victims, as well as victims of labor law violations obtain the highest compensation they deserve. The law firm's best Los Angeles employment and labor law lawyers, based in 5723 Melrose Ave Suite 250 Los Angeles, CA 90038‎, specialize in handling all types of wrongful termination cases; violation of retaliation laws; violation of whistle blowing laws; and employment discrimination or harassment, to include age discrimination, racial discrimination, gender discrimination, disability discrimination, religious discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, national origin discrimination and workers compensation discrimination, as well as labor law violations to include: Labor Code retaliation, meal and rest break violations, minimum wage violations, overtime violations, tip violations and wage and hour violations. To learn more about the firm, call 1 (866) 998-2545 for a free case evaluation or email them or take advantage of their free on-line case submission.

Rodney Mesriani, Top Employment Attorneys, http://www.topemploymentattorneys.com/, (866) 325-4529, [email protected]