At Melehy & Associates LLC (“M&A”), we are dedicated to protecting the rights of all workers.
This is a true story, but the victim’s name was changed to protect her identity. Maria C. is undocumented, a single mother of two and sole source of income for her household. Because she needed to single-handedly support her family, she took a job on a food truck in Washington, D.C., where she worked six days per week (74 hours) and sometimes as much as 16 hours per day. But her employer stubbornly refused to pay her overtime – 1.5 times her regular hourly rate for the 34 hours of overtime she worked each week. Then, after her boss abruptly fired her without giving a reason, she had enough and contacted M&A for help. M&A immediately spotted the overtime violation and sued her former employer for the violations. As a penalty for violating her legal rights, M&A forced the employer to pay Maria four times the amount she was owed for overtime.
Maria’s story is just one more sad example of worker-exploitation. And, although employers consistently take advantage of undocumented workers, they have the same rights as anyone else to be paid in accordance with the law.
EACH CASE IS DIFFERENT AND THE FIRM’S RECORD IS NO ASSURANCE THAT IT WILL BE SUCCESSFUL IN REACHING A FAVORABLE RESULT IN A FUTURE CASE.