lamoocow

I am the owner of an independent sales organization in Los Angeles; I have been in business for the past 18 years. Recently, one of my ex-employees took me to the labor board claiming I owe her for over time pay during trade shows in NY and Las Vegas. She was a salaried employee who was paid commissions on top of her salary for sales within her specified territory. She was given a "comp day" for time worked over weekends. All her travel expenses and meals were paid when she was out of town. Additionally, she claims she is owed monies for lunch hours not taken during trade shows both in LA and during out of town trips. Can anyone specify the "industry standard" regarding compensation for employees working markets and trade shows? My understanding is that as a salaried/commission employee, trade shows were her means of generating sales and part of her job description and responsibilities. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

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JYA

Sounds to me like you and your rep had a nasty separation and things are starting to get even nastier.

What you are explaining is similar to what my job duties and compensation were when I was a salaried sales rep. It was part of my duties as a rep to attend trade shows.

I'm not sure how the whole "lunch hour" thing works, but, my boss always let the staff take days off if we worked or traveled on weekends. Furthermore, in the industry we were in, many sales reps work from home, so, we never had to clock in anywhere, and our boss was pretty hands off. To be honest, we probably took more time off than what we were allotted.

Being that you are a California company (Corporation I assume), well, Cali LOVES employees! My suggestion to you is to get a really good labor attorney to answer your questions, followed by doing what you're doing here, which is asking other reps these questions. May I also suggest Malakye.com as another BB to ask the same questions.

Lastly, the labor attorney is going to want to see your employee handbook, as well as any employment contract you had with this rep. When I quit the company I worked for, we left on a bad note as well. They came after me for breach and I went back at them for withholding my final check pending me signing a "non-compete", as well as petty stuff, such as not documenting vacation time accrued on my paycheck stub (yes, this is the law in California).

Turns out that they dropped their suit and I got started in this business with my "earnings."

Please keep me abreast as to how this turns out; I'm very interested.

 

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