Complaint Review: Dennis Latman HR.

HR at party City misclassified me as salary exempt after hiring me otherwise.  This was deliberate and I saw frequent labor law violations like that of other staff at their Pleasanton HQ. When I tried over several months working with them at higher and higher levels to straiten out the miss-classification, they lied and committed fraud.  PartyCity.com's  large and well financed professional legal department provided false legal documents to convince me I didn't get overtime pay.  But when I went to a lawyer and showed them the documents, I found they were fake laws that only applied in another state, and not applicable to my job description either.  They also stalled, misdirected, pretended not to understand, forgot and lost follow up emails, etc. 

Eventually after months and dozens of attempts my demand for fair legally required pay reached the top levels where they "play hardball" (their words) and following the law is a cost benefit calculation that ignores civic and moral obligations(my observation). Senior HR learned that I had told others about my problem getting fair pay and other employees in the branch HQ were starting to demand fair pay and regular lunch breaks too.  They fired me to set an example because I insisted they follow the law and pay me the back overtime pay I worked for.  

It seems the law will not be enforced against them and they can get away without punishment in this case.  It's in their charter they need to do everything to make money they can without regard to any other concern, so the senior HR execs are required to do this to people until the laws are enforced and it cost more than they gain.  (hmm. what does that say about how they treat their customers?)

Anyone working for PartyCity who has been told they must work overtime without compensation or asked to work lunches or without breaks or skip breaks as part of the job should contact me to work together.  I've seen them grudgingly follow the laws on employment when employees get together and object as a group, but I don't think they've ever paid the legal fines the Department of Justice mandates they pay to the employees for these violations.  Don't trust PartyCity HR if they say they have checked it out with their legal department to make sure you aren't supposed to be paid for overtime.  They said that to me too and it was a fraudulent deceit.

Unfortunately, a lawyer tells me I can't do anything about this because an individual can't bring a criminal case against a company and all I can do is report to the department of justice and hope they'll decide to take action. But since the department of justice doesn't prosecute the million dollar fraud at wall street, I don't think they're going to help little me with a couple thousand dollars of unpaid overtime.  It was very difficult to get a lawyer to help too because they all got "too busy" when they found it couldn't qualify for a class action 3 figure lawsuit.  If this happens to you, I recommend finding others to pool your influence and you might get justice with group action. 

Alternatively, There are many legal ways such as protest and just standing in front of store telling customers how the partycity management is defrauding it's employees. (don't block their path for legal reasons or do anything criminal please). Think of it as a fun way to spend the afternoon, take a picnic basket and make a difference for justice on the public sidewalk in front of their store by letting PartyCity customers know about Partycity's bad behavior. Also if you know or live near senior PartyCity Management consider stopping by for a neighborly visit and ask them to support the law in their job as part of their civic responsibility. I think they must not all be bad and you should give them a chance to demonstrate they aren't like that outside the job and maybe they are really good people deserving to live in your neighborhood and play with your kids in school.