Rules of Court

Los Angeles CA

02 April, 2021

2:45 PM

Description

Plaintiff discharged employee appealed the judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County (California), which affirmed the trial court's judgment sustaining defendant employer's demurrer without leave to amend in plaintiff's suit for compensatory and punitive damages for wrongful discharge. So the law rules of court come in the work. Plaintiff employee alleged that defendant employer wrongfully discharged him because he informed defendant that his new supervisor was under suspicion for embezzling from another company. Plaintiff asserted a tort cause of action for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy, a contract claim for breach of an implied-in-fact promise to discharge for good cause only, and tortious breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The court affirmed in part and reversed in part the sustaining of defendant's demurrer without leave to amend, holding that plaintiff's tort claim for wrongful discharge failed since no public interest was involved; that tort remedies were not available for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing; and that plaintiff's cause of action for breach of an implied-in-fact contract promise to discharge only for good cause survived the statute of frauds, Cal. Civ. Code §1624 (a). Under Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order No. 4-2001, Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8, § 11040, security guards were entitled to compensation for all on-call hours spent at their assigned worksites under their employer's control; on-call hours were hours worked, even though the guards could engage in limited personal activities, because the guards were required to be at the worksite as a condition of employment, to respond immediately and in uniform if called, and to remain on site if relief was not available; [2]-Wage Order 4 does not permit the exclusion of sleep time from compensable hours worked in covered 24-hour shifts; the court declined to read into Wage Order 4 a federal regulation permitting employers and employees to agree to exclude sleep time from hours worked.