Posted on August 8th, 2019
Below is a complete transcript of this video.
What’s going on, fellow entrepreneurs? Today I want to talk about a document that’s called an order to appear, and this usually comes from the Labor Commissioner.
And order to appear usually say something like, “Order to appear in front of the Labor Commissioner regarding compliance with the Labor Code”, or something to that effect.
It used to be that a particular employee complained about something, and then they came and inspected or… and then they’ll send you the order to appear.
Usually, they come knocking on your door and ask for a bunch of immediate documents, and then later they send you this order to appear.
So it can be pretty scary and intimidating. But at the end of the day, the order to appear is really just a document that’s saying, “We want copies of all of these different things.” And it’s usually payroll records, workers’ comp, evidence of workers’ comp and all these different things.
Recently, I’ve seen an uptick in these that my clients are getting, and I’m not sure if there’s something new that the Labor Board is doing where they’re going after certain industries, or whatever, because that’s happened before in the past.
I remember there was a time that they were going after gyms for some reason. But, whenever you do receive one of these, first of all, don’t panic.
Second of all, you’ll notice that they ask for a lot of information that seems a little bit private and personal. My thoughts on that are, if you don’t have anything to hide, just go ahead and give them the information.
It’s almost like when you get pulled over and a cop asks you something like, “Where are you coming from?” Right? Well, obviously that’s not something you’re required to answer, but if you’ve got nothing to hide, why not? It’ll just make it go easier and smoother.
What typically happens if there are some documents that you don’t want to turn over or, some information that you don’t want to give, is they’ll likely just send you a subpoena for those documents.
And then if you don’t comply with the subpoena, then there could be additional problems.
However, if you object to the subpoena, then it has to go to a judge, and then you have to spend all these legal fees to figure out if this is something that they can ask for, or not.
From my perspective, it just makes sense. If there isn’t anything to hide, then yes, turn it over. If there’s some other reason why you don’t want to turn those records over, privacy or whatever, then you’re going to have to spend the money and the legal fees to fight it.
And then, at the end of the day, even if the Labor Commissioner doesn’t get those documents from you because a judge rules in your favor for some reason, then that’s just a guy that you’ve pissed off for no reason. Those guys have a lot of power.
Turn over anything that you don’t have a specific reason for not turning over. And then, from there, you’ll see what happens. I mean, they’ll go through the records.
They’ll say that they’ve found something, or maybe they’ll say they didn’t find something. Who knows? Anyway, that’s my perspective. Look out for those OTAs.
They’re not as scary as they seem when you get the letter, but my advice is, right away, hire an attorney.
Have them look it over for you, and have them deal with the Labor Commissioner for you because I think the Labor Commissioner will take a lot more liberties with you if they think that you don’t know than they would with an attorney.
All right, till next time, fellow entrepreneurs, thanks for checking out this video and we’ll see each other soon.
Bye.
