The Garfinkel Group, LLC is proud to represent workers from all manner of industries and job classifications. Unfortunately, some industries are more susceptible to discrimination and unfair pay practics. The following are just small sample of some of the industries we deal with most commonly
Automobile Industry
The automobile industry is, unfortunately, rife with multiple problematic practices. Sex harassment and discrimination are, unfortunately, very common. The automobile industry – both car dealerships and body and mechanic shops – are traditionally male-dominated industries. Sexual harassment is quite common. Female sales representatives are uncommon and often subject to lewd remarks and comments that they “can’t cut it” like their male counterparts. It is not uncommon for car dealerships to have one or fewer female sales representatives who is the butt of her male counterparts inappropriate jokes and conduct. When female employees complain about harassment, they are often ignored, particularly when the harasser is a high-producing salesman.
Car dealerships also frequently engage in unfair pay practices. These practices can include withholding earned sales commissions in the sales and service departments, failure to pay non-sales staff overtime wages, and, sometimes, paying female employees less than male counterparts in violation of state or federal equal pay rules.
Body and Mechanic Shops are also historically male-dominated industries. Even though there are staffing shortages, it is very common for female mechanics to be driven from the industry due to hostile and unfair working conditions. These conditions often include, but are in no way limited to:
- Refusing to train female mechanics so they cannot get promoted;
- Scheduling female mechanics for less desirable work shifts;
- Overt sexual harassment like inappropriate comments, nude photos on toolboxes, sexual assault; and
- Demeaning remarks like calling female mechanics “honey,” “sweety,” or “baby,” or more hostile gender-motivated language like “bitch.”
If you work in the automobile industry and feel like you might be the victim of gender discrimination, contact us to learn what your options are.
Domestic Workers
Domestic workers – namely maids, nannies, and the like – are often some of our most at-risk workers. They are often not from the United States, may not speak English well, and often do not have legal immigration status. The result is that domestic workers are often the victims of some of the most egregious sexual harassment and wage and hour violations.
Common illegal pay practices affecting this industry include, but are not limited to:
- Paying maids based on houses they clean but refusing to pay them for the rest of their time like compensable driving time;
- Automatic deductions for meal breaks that are never actually taken;
- Failure to pay the minimum state, federal, or municipal minimum wage; and
- Failure to pay overtime wages.
If you or someone you know works in the domestic service industry, and feel like you might be the victim of gender discrimination, unpaid wages, or any other illegal employment practice, contact us to learn what your options are.
Restaurant Industry
Restaurants are often informal working environments. They frequently have a high volume of staff turnover, and owners are often not concerned with instituting formal and legal pay and discrimination practices. Sex harassment and illegal pay practices are, unfortunately, common in the restaurant industry. Wait staff and kitchen staff often work late hours and consume alcohol during shifts. Forms of common restaurant sex harassment include, but are not limited to:
- Male staff groping female staff;
- Male staff making sexual comments about female staff; and
- Male staff pressuring female wait staff to go on dates.
Illegal pay practices also frequently pop up in the restaurant industry. Common examples of unfair pay practices that we see include:
- Failure to pay either the regular or tipped minimum wage;
- Failure to meet the standards required to apply the tip credit;
- Tip theft or other forms of wage theft;
- Failure to properly record hours and pay any hourly wages; and
- Failure to pay overtime wages;
If you or someone you know works in the restaurant industry and think you might be the victim of sexual harassment or unfair pay practices, contact us to learn what your options are.
Sales
Wage theft in the sales industry is quite common. Sales professionals often sell “too successfully,” only to have their employer decide that they do not want to pay out all of the earned commissions, commission escalators, and bonuses. When sales professionals complain, they are often fired as a form of retaliation. Unfortunately, sometimes the sales professionals sign unfair sales contracts that allow the company to pull their commissions whenever they want. The good news is that the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act has guidelines for when commissions and bonuses are earned and must be paid. Contracts do not always allow companies to engage in pay practices that violate that law. For more information on these sorts of claims, please reach out to start a conversation with us and learn more.
Landscaping
Like domestic workers, workers in the landscaping industry are frequently the victims of illegal pay practices. Landscaping companies often hire immigrants, individuals who do not speak strong English, often do not have legal immigration status. Landscapers will often require their workers to work well in excess of 40 hours per week but will not pay them time-and-a-half wages for their overtime work. They will instead offer to pay straight time wages in cash instead of overtime pay.
If you or someone you know works in landscaping is not receiving fair pay contact us to learn what your options are.
Consulting and professional Services
The consulting and professional services industry brings its own set of challenges for employees. From the lack of transparency during the performance review and promotion process, to a high pressure work environment that frequently turns hostile towards those who do not fit the “traditional mold.” All too often firm employees and partners, think that the system is stacked against them. Employees should derive comfort in knowing frequently the law is on their side. For example, one of the most significant employment law cases to come down from the U.S. Supreme Court was the 1989, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins decision, that established that gender stereotyping is actionable as sex discrimination and secondarliy, that employees can still be discriminated against when there is a mixed-motive for the discrimination.
The attorneys in our firm have extensive experience from decades on both sides of these issues and we handling the most complex issues faced by employees in the consulting and professional services industry:
- Disparate treatment
- Hostile work environment
- Discrimiation on the basis of age, gender, race or national origin
- Severance agreements
- Non-compete contracts
- Whistleblowing, Qui Tam and Retaliatory Discharge
Financial Services
The financial services industry is one of the most complex of all industries to navigate, as it combines robust industry-wide regulation with an all too often high pressure, high risk, high reward business model. Financial services employees are particularly vulnerable to retaliation from whistleblower claims and lawsuits filed by compliance officers, government investigations, and enforcement actions, often resulting from the enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley legislation. Furthermore, this fast paced environment often leads to a “act first and clean up later” set of behaviours that can trample on the rights of their employees. With hands-on decades of experience in this industry our attorneys have the industry knowledge to ensure that your clients’ rights are protected.
We frequently handle financial service industry issues related to:
- Contract negotiations
- Disparate treatment
- Hostile work environment
- Discrimiation on the basis of age, gender, race or national origin
- Severance agreements
- Non-compete contracts
- Whistleblowing, Qui Tam and Retaliatory Discharge
- Sarbanes Oxley related claims
