Filipino security guard wins $425,000 in overtime case

LOS ANGELES, California—Eight years is a long time for a worker to be exploited, working 24/7, with no overtime pay.
But the patience of Filipino security guard Ernesto Salamante finally paid off recently, when he won $425,000 in a lawsuit he filed against his employer.

More than eight years ago, Salamante was hired by a jewelry distributor in Los Angeles to provide security to its premises.

In an obvious attempt to make Salamante work way beyond the eight-hour shift without paying him overtime, the employer provided him a trailer for his living accommodations inside the compound and prodded the Filipino elderly to accept a monthly salary, instead of wages based on an hourly basis.

Unaware of his legal rights as a worker and worried that he would have difficulty finding another job, the 73-year-old security guard worked everyday in the compound, seven days and nights a week.

In addition, he was made to clean the compound’s yard before the employees arrived in the morning and after they have left in the evening, the lawsuit claimed.

The employer refused to pay Salamante overtime and argued that the security guard position only paid minimum wage.

Salamante then sought the assistance of the Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement, which recommended that he hire a private attorney.

He was represented by prominent Glendale-based Filipino attorney Joe Sayas, who was able to gather sufficient evidence that established the employer’s violations of state and federal employment laws.

Sayas advanced a novel legal theory, when he invoked California’s Elder Abuse Act because of Salamante’s age, which allowed Salamante to make claims for additional damages.

What started as a claim for wages became a more serious case of elderly financial abuse. In addition to wages owed, this legal strategy opened the way for claims of emotional distress.

The case was aggressively defended by the employer, with the defense attorneys filing petitions before the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. However, the employer lost all legal issues it raised before the appellate courts.

Just before Christmas last year, Salamante obtained a settlement of $425,000 — an unprecedented amount for a blue-collar position. The case quickly caught the attention of the legal community.

Having grown up in the Philippines, Mr. Salamante was concerned about how he could express the facts of his case well.  He felt that he could better testify about the details of his employment in his native language, Tagalog.

“It helped that being a Filipino myself, I understood why a Filipino would agree to work under such difficult circumstances and for an abusive employer, and that was because of the Filipino’s boundless desire to help his extended family back home. It also helped that I understood the language and was thus able to communicate better with the client,” said Sayas, who was just recently rated a “Super Lawyer” in the field of Employment Law by the Los Angeles Magazine.

Salamante can now happily retire in the Philippines and spend the rest of his life with his grandkids, his longtime wish. Cynthia De Castro/AJPress