What are my legal rights if the restaurant that i worked in burned down?
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What are my legal rights if the restaurant that i worked in burned down?
I work at a restaurant that burnt down and we were told that we would continue to get paid from insurance and average every week until the business reopened. Now, they are claiming that we cannot get a second job because that would forfeit our check from them because it is like collecting unemployment and it is trying to cheat the system. Then, they make us clean up and work saying that’s why we are getting paid. And they tell us we do not get paid if we go out of town for 2 weeks yet from the beginning we have been told the insurance covers our pay in case of an incident like this.
Asked on December 21, 2011 under Employment Labor Law, Louisiana
Answers:
MD, Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
It sounds like your employers are trying to pull a fast one on you and the insurance company. If you have been given information by your employer that you would be getting paid while the place was being renovated (repaired), you need to make sure this is in writing. Then, contact the insurance company to find out exactly what has occurred or will occur with respect to your payments. Insist the payments (if the insurance company corroborates what your employer told you) be paid directly to you for your salary. As to prohibiting you from getting a second job, unless this was in your job descriptiion and manual (prohibition on working elsewhere), your pay from the insurance company is not unemployment and you can get another job. But again, corroborate this with the insurance company. Then contact your state's department of labor to find out if you do qualify for unemployment compensation and if the insurance company tells you your employer is wrong, then you need to decide whether to get unemployment or work to clean up and get paid by your employer. Either way, inform the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and your state's department of labor of your employer's antics.
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