A good friend of mine was very much in need of work and was called for an interview by Jason and Jeremiah, the two men in charge of the marketing division of this company. After 15.5 hours of training spanning three days, she was hired. Please note, this training was mandatory for employment, was directly related to the telemarketing posistion, and was inside the place of employment under direct guidance of the supervisor. When she reported for her first day, she was told by the other employees that the training was not paid for, even though after a call by me to the San Diego branch of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), I was informed that payment for that period is mandatory. Moving on, and even more disturbing, is that my friend was told that she would be working a full eight hours a day but only getting paid for five hours at the minimum wage rate. Furthermore, she was told this was because she was on "salary" and thus only getting pais a certain amount. The employers mandated that she be there for the entire eight hour work period. Upon researching California's labor laws, even if an employee is on salary, they cannot be paid any less than the minimum wage rate. The employees have the opportunity to earn commission at this company, and legally the company is allowed to lower the wage rate based on a percentage ratio of the commission earned, but again no lower than the minimum wage rate. Also, only supervisors and managers are allowed by law to earn salary. I called Danny, the owner of the company, and discussed these issues and my concerns with him. He said that they do not have employees that do telemarketing within their place of employment; "they are independent contractors that work from home", and "any employee that works over five hours a day is doing so voluntarily." He also said that all workers are paid for all hours that they work in accordance with law... All blatent lies. A quick verbal survey with any of the employees would tell otherwise; they all work within the walls of the company on equipment owned by them, they all are mandated to work eight hours a day but only get paid for five, and they all have not been paid for the training period. Hence, this company is in violation of the law on many different levels. They do not have employees file a W-4, and are bilking them of many billable hours, lining their pockets with the equity of their labor. Furthermore, and to add insult to the many businesses who purchase advertising slots on their placards, 1yellowpage1 lies about the vetting process for choosing them. The businesses are told that only one of each type of service is targeted for placement on the placard, and that lucky business is... YOU! The local companies are actually picked at random and cold-called, and many types of companies that offer the same service are targeted. The first to pay for the ad slot is the one to get it. Also, 1yellowpage1 states that they are backed by GoDaddy.com and other high-profile companies when they are not, a lame attempt to dupe businesses to purchase from them and feel more secure with their abilities and corporate image. At the very least this is, in practice, false advertising. I am currently in the process of filing a complaint with the commissioner of the DLSE to have this sham of a company investigated; hopefully it will result in the employees being reimbursed what they are lawfully due. And I can only imagine what the tax nightmare would be if the IRS was to investigate their shady practices... It might even be a criminal matter. My last words: CAVEAT EMPTOR!!! And don't be lured in to work for them because it's a trap, eight hours a day leaves no time for interviews with other places of employment. Any comments on this post are appreciated. I will keep my anonymous complaint with the DLSE against 1yellowpage1 updated within this report.
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