Overtime & Unpaid Wages

Naples Unpaid Wage Lawyer Advocating for Just Employment Practices

Wage and hour disputes can have an adverse affect on both workers and businesses. Not receiving their rightful compensation can put workers into financial stress. Conversely, businesses devote significant resources to fight groundless claims.

Gunterfirm. helps businesses remain in compliance with the applicable wage and hour laws to stop violations from occurring, and defend them against false accusations.

We also consult with and advise employees about their options to recover unpaid wages. Employees and the businesses they work for may not fully realize their legal entitlement to wages. Our firm specializes in analyzing these wage issues, and providing an intelligent approach to resolve them as efficiently as possible.

Naples unpaid wage lawyer Jason Gunter began his legal practice 18 years ago and earned his Florida Bar Certification in Labor and Employment Law in 2005. As a specialist in employment and labor law issues, he has the knowledge and experience to resolve complex wage and hour problems for workers and businesses in Naples, Fort Myers and communities throughout Southwest Florida.

Rights and Obligations Under the FLSA and Florida Statutes

Oftentimes businesses don’t catch violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Florida Statutes Chapter 448 until it is too late. Our firm can help educate business owners of their duties under the law to avoid future litigation. Disputes about wages and hours often arise in regards to:

• Periods of inactivity: The particular circumstances surrounding the inactive period dictate whether the time is considered work. An employee who is engaged to wait is considered working even if she or he is not performing the job during that period.
• On-call: As a general rule, a worker who is required to remain on the job premises while on-call is working, whereas a worker who is allowed to remain home or to be reachable by mobile communication is not working, with some exceptions that impose a constraint to freedom during the on-call time.
• Rest breaks: Usually, brief rest breaks are considered part of the typical work routine and are compensated as work. This compensated rest time is typically authorized by an employer as 20 minutes or less and may no longer be considered rest time if the employee extends the time against the employer’s express policy.
• Lunch breaks: Bona fide lunchtime, often of 30 minutes or more, may be uncompensated. However, the employee must be relieved of all duties, both inactive and active during the lunchtime.
• Training, meetings and lectures: These activities can only be counted as non-working hours if they occur outside normal working hours, are voluntary, not job related and work performance is not required during that time.
• Travel: Whether travel time is compensable depends upon whether the travel is an element of the job, is within the workday and is outside of the home community.

Class Action Wage Claims

Many employees incorrectly believe the costs are too high to bring a claim against their employer for a small amount of withheld wages. But, what can seem like a minor loss can actually have a tremendous impact, adding up to potentially thousands of dollars over time and possibly hundreds of thousands within one company.

Our law firm builds a class action lawsuit when appropriate to recover lost wages for a class of workers whose wages have been withheld. A class action allocates the costs of litigation and puts plaintiffs in a stronger position.

Gunterfirm also defends businesses that have been unfairly accused of withholding wages. Depending upon the circumstances, we may be able to dissolve the class or take other strategic steps to mitigate the damage a case like this can create.

Learn More About Resolution of Wage and Hour Disputes

Gunterfirm is a well-known employment and labor law firm in Southwest Florida. Our team is ready to help you resolve your wage or hour dispute. Call Jason L. Gunter, P.A. at 239.334.7017 or contact us online to schedule your free case evaluation with a Naples unpaid wage lawyer.