Taxes

Yes, your cruise director is already obsessed with filing his taxes for 2008 even though the year isn’t over.  My hope is that I’ll qualify for a refund so the earlier I file the better, right?

But there is some concern on my part and my fellow ex-Hellerites should be concerned too.  I am not a tax attorney so if there is someone out there such as an ex-Heller tax attorney or paralegal, please weigh in at the comments.

W-2 Statements

I am beginning to wonder what type of operation will be in place at Heller Ehrman to issue the W-2 statements and whether that will be done on time and within the mandated deadline.

If you do not get a W-2 statement, what are the steps needed to enter your income and other details on tax forms?  Can you construct one based on the previous year’s W-2 (using the Employer ID Number) and your last paycheck stub?

If you do get a W-2 statement, what if the figures are incorrect as compared to your last paycheck stub?

Can Non-Payment of Accrued Vacation Be Considered a “Loss?”

I have been following the Bernard Madoff scandal – about Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and the $50 Billion scam of its investors – quite closely since there seems to be quite a bit of scumbaggery these days.  Remember how I said in an earlier post that this seemed to be the Decade of the Big Lie?  I may have to call it the Decade of Scumbaggery.

There have been interesting articles in the past few days as to how these investors can recoup some of their losses when filing their income taxes.  It appears they can claim this as a loss due to embezzlement and based on percentage of income, etc. they may be able to lower their taxable income.

This might be a stretch, but I am wondering if the same can be done with the accrued vacation and other wages owed to ex-Hellerites?  While I don’t think accrued vacation meets the same standards as a loss due to an active investment made by a person (and I am certain that WARN Act monies and Waiting Time penalties don’t qualify), it is interesting to ponder the possibility.  This obviously requires some more thought and comment.

 

Wage Claim Conferences – Updates

Just a quick update and summary on how the wage claim conferences have been going – all this based on great comments provided by readers.

Bottom line:  the response from the Heller Ehrman Dissolution Committee, at least during Jonathan Hayden’s appearance at a San Jose conference yesterday, has been one of not disputing the claim for accrued vacation and wages.  However, the D.C. does dispute the penalties to be levied stating that Heller’s failure to pay the wages was not “willful” as one commenter put it.

The “willful” part is obvious the same tired old game of blaming Bank of America and Citibank for the inability to pay.  As one commenter stated, this is a bullshit excuse and can you imagine if you went through life with this attitude?  How about telling IRS that you couldn’t pay your taxes this year since there was no money or the bank wouldn’t let you pay?

It is shameful that the D.C. has engaged in a game of “chicken” with its former employees but, as I’ve said before, this seems to be the typical reponse and accepted way of running a business these days.  Try to get away with whatever you can, try to screw your employees and willfully disobey laws as they pertain to your employees in the hopes that some, if not all of them will simply throw their hands up and walk away.

Notice to Mr. Hayden, the rest of the D.C. and the other scumbag players in this tragedy like Larrabee, Fram, Haslam and others: we aren’t walking away.  That should be obvious by our willingness to talk about this tragedy to the media and to others.  It should be obvious by the route some people have taken in various lawsuits.  It should be obvious by the mere existence of this forum for the ex-Hellerites.  You just don’t get it do you?  Or you do and you just don’t care.

DLSE Conferences Today & Tomorrow

From what commenters have said, there are several conferences scheduled today with the California Labor Commission – in San Diego and San Jose from what I recall.  These are a result of wage claims filed for accrued vacation and non-payment of wages at the time of termination.

If you have a conference scheduled, can you please add your comments as to what occurred (next steps, if anyone appeared on behalf of Heller Ehrman, etc.) and what was the end result.  Or you can email me at hellerdrone@gmail.com and I will keep this post updated during the next few days.

Wage Claim – Rejected!

Well I finally received a response to the wage claim I filed last month with the State of California Labor Commissioner’s office.  Below are scanned images of what I received and I imagine this is the same for most ex-Hellerites who filed.  

I’ve seen comments on other posts about this latest development – I think I and other readers would like feedback and comments from those who received the same response.  What are your next steps?
 

Re-jected! Any Wage Claim Rejections?

While yours truly, Heller Drone, has not yet received word about his wage claim, I am wondering if readers and followers could supply info on the following:

- have you had any of your claims rejected outright? and if so, what reason was given?

- if you’ve received a hearing date notice, how long did it take to receive the notice? any other details such as what you’ve been told to bring to the hearing, is it in person/by phone, etc?

- if you haven’t received any acknowledgment from the agency or agencies, how long has it been since you filed a claim?

Any Sample WARN Act Letters or Wage Claim Letters?

Your cruise director has received several requests from ex-Hellerites on how to compose a demand letter to the Dissolution Committee, how to compose a WARN Act letter or a Wage Claim letter. Let’s face it, while yours truly is no Faulkner when it comes to the written word, even I get writer’s block from time to time and find it hard to compose letters.

If you could post your samples (with your personal contact info redacted out) in the comments or send to me, hellerdrone@gmail.com, and we’ll get some good info out there for people to use.

I’ll start off with a sample of a letter sent to the Dissolution Committee:

November 10, 2008

Mr. Peter Benvenutti
Heller Ehrman Dissolution Committee
c/o Jones Day
555 California Street, 26th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104

Heller Ehrman Dissolution Committee
Heller Ehrman LLP
333 Bush Street
San Francisco, CA 94104

Dear Peter and members of the Dissolution Committee:

This letter constitutes a formal demand for payment of wages and other monies due me as part of my employment at Heller Ehrman LLP since April 14, 1912 (substitute your own start date) as Bad Ass Litigation Secretary/Diva (substitute your own title). The calculations are as follows:

• Accrued Vacation: ______ hours at _____ per hour = $_________

• Waiting Period Penalties (for non-payment of accrued vacation): $_____ per day at 30 days (October 11 – November 10, 2008) = $_________

• WARN Notice severance as agreed to in written notice on September 26, 2008: October 11, 2008 – November 28, 2008 = $________

The wages and penalties due are $_________. Please indicate to me in writing when I may expect payment for these wages. Please send all correspondence to:

_____________________
_____________________
_____________________

Sincerely,
Frieda Fondle

Final Paychecks Trickling Out to Recipients

We have received several emails today from Heller staffers stating that they received, via US Mail, their final paycheck today.   All have said that the check did not include accrued vacation or any WARN Act monies – just the one week’s wages held in arrears.

The fact that such paychecks were to be given to all terminated employees upon their departure and the one week delay does not absolve them from this transgression. 

We are assuming the same will hold true for those terminated today – that they will receive their checks late next week.  We hope.

When I get my check I intend to run and cash it.

Over and out,

Heller Drone
Cruise Director

One Passenger’s Experience Filing A Wage Claim

This just in.  A recommendation from another loyal reader:

You should not file in SF if you worked in another California office. Claims must be filed at the office that handles claims for the city where the work was actually performed.

For Silicon Valley:
DLSE – Wage Claims, 100 Paseo de San Antonio, Suite 120, SJ CA 95113.

For LA:
DLSE – Wage Claims, 320 West Fourth St., Suite 450, LA CA 90013.

For San Diego:
DLSE – Wage Claims, 7575 Metropolitan Drive, Suite 210, SD CA 92108.

* * *

I just want to relate to the readers what one person in California has experienced when filing a wage claim:

“I went to the Department of Labor Office in San Francisco to file a wage claim yesterday.  My experience was on par to going to the DMV (no surprise there).  At the DMV, you can’t get registration and handle your license in the same window.  The same runs true for the labor office.  I attempted to file a wage claim INCLUDING my WARN act money.  This is not accepted and basically I turned in a mangled form.  Hopefully this spares others the same troubling experience.

The wage claim should only include unpaid hours worked AND unpaid accrued vacation time.  This claim needs to be filed in person or mailed into California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, 455 Golden Gate Ave, 10th floor, San Francisco, CA.

A claim for WARN act violations should come in the form of a statement/letter addressed to the same place Attn: Ethera Clemons, Deputy Commissioner.”

So the key points:

- when filing a wage claim in California, ONLY INCLUDING WAGES NOT PAID AND ACCRUED VACATION NOT PAID.  DO NOT ADD THE WARN ACT MONIES THAT ARE DUE.

- wage claims can be filed in person at the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, 455 Golden Gate Ave, 10th floor, San Francisco, CA or by mail.

- FOR WARN ACT CLAIMS, send a letter to Ethera Clemons, Deputy Commissioner at the same address above.  If anyone drafts or sends a letter, please consider sending me a copy so I can post the text here for others to copy and paste into a letter.

Thanks to our loyal reader for sending in this info – you rock!

And if you have any experiences filing for wage claims and/or unemployment and you want to have your story told here, please email it to hellerdrone@gmail.com.

Over and out.

Heller Drone
Cruise Director

Retired Shareholders – Do Not Use On Wage Claims

A reader pointed out in a comment recently that the list of shareholders posted at Update: Wage Claim Info contained the names of several shareholders who are retired.  As the reader stated:

“Please note that some of these shareholders are retired which means they have resigned their shareholder status and are only receiving retirement benefits – although the Dissolution Committee has cut them off too. It would be a travesty to include these people in any claim because they are in the same boat we are – broke and pissed off. The ones I know have retirement status are the following:

Robert Borton
Curt Caton
Charles Clifford
John Cutler
Robert Epsen
Robert Harris (he’s in his 90s)
Victor Hebert
Weyman Lundquist
William Mackey
Larry Popofsky
Jerry Robinson

These people are on our side, folks. I think they are just as disgusted as we are.”

I couldn’t agree more.  I have updated the original post to remove the names and placed this same comment at the top in blue so readers can avoid using their names when filing wage claims.

And from another reader:

“Alexander Brainerd as well. He was pushed out of equity at age 67 per the firm’s ageist partnership rule. He’s also just a really great person.

Additionally, a large number of the shareholders you had listed in your prior post (namely over half of the IP Lit shareholders) had already resigned from the firm and did not take part in the dissolution vote.

But the real point is that it’s ridiculous to blame random shareholders (many of them quite junior) for the problems caused by Matt Larrabee and his cadre (Barry Levin, Marie Fiala, etc.)”

Ultimately folks, at a minimum you should have the Dissolution Committee members (Benvenutti, Sugarman, Hayden and Loacker) listed.  Who you choose to add to your wage claim is your decision.

Over and out.

Heller Drone
Cruise Director