Back Pay

A former Orange County assistant sheriff who was fired and sent to jail in a perjury conviction is in line to get a big pay day -- about three years of back pay with benefits for wrongful termination. The tentative ruling in the wrong termination case was issued Friday by Orange County Superior Court Judge Andrew Banks.

The third season premiere of "Game of Thrones" did very well for HBO, with 6.7 million subscribers tuning into the program during the multiple airings Sunday night. However, the program broke another kind of record this week, with people who presumably don't subscribe to HBO. The episode, "Valar Dohaeris," broke records for simultaneous illegal downloads through BitTorrent and other sites, according to the new site TorrentFreak . With over a million downloads already, and a record 160,000 simultaneous users sharing the files, the "Game of Thrones" season premiere is on record for having the largest "swarm" of users ever downloading the program at once.

Major League Baseball was ordered by a federal judge to give five umpires $3.1 million to cover back pay, interest and medical costs as part of a lawsuit stemming from their failed mass resignation in 1999. After the Supreme Court declined in January 2005 to hear an appeal of a lower-court ruling, baseball tried last November to give Gary Darling, Bill Hohn, Larry Poncino, Larry Vanover and Joe West more than $1.

Writers on E!'s "Fashion Police" have filed claims with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement saying the series has broken state labor laws by not paying them regular and overtime hours. The writers allege they are owed more than $1 million in back wages by E!. "Fashion Police" features several hosts, including Joan Rivers and Kelly Osbourne, commenting on celebrity fashion. The series is produced by Rivers' daughter, Melissa. PHOTOS: Celebrities by The Times The complainants say that "Fashion Police" ignores state laws that require an employer to pay hourly employees their regular wage rate for all time worked in an eight-hour period.

A federal court ordered the government to make back payments to 200,000 federal workers, most of them women, in the biggest pay-equity case in Canadian history. The decision may mean the government will have to fork out billions of dollars in what union officials in the Public Service Alliance of Canada hailed as a victory for women but right-wing politicians viewed as a misguided blow to taxpayers. The union says it is claiming more than $1.

Anaheim high school teacher Peggy Ann Buckey will receive more than $183,000 in back pay, interest and retirement benefits for the time she was on compulsory leave after being charged in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case, a Los Angeles judge ruled Thursday. After a sensational trial, Buckey was acquitted of 14 charges of child molestation growing out of allegations leveled against her mother's Manhattan Beach preschool.

Several thousand Palestinian security officers fired rifles into the air in Gaza City, joining other workers' protests for back pay from the cash-strapped Hamas-led government. In the southern Gaza Strip, three Hamas militants were killed in two Israeli airstrikes at the Rafah refugee camp. Israelis also fired at militants in the southern city of Khan Yunis, killing one and wounding two, hospital officials said.

Gov. Pete Wilson on Tuesday asked his estimated 2,500 political appointees to voluntarily continue giving up 5% of their salaries to help reduce the costs of state government. Aides to the governor said the appointees are being asked to forgo participation in a pay restoration program next spring and to give up any claims they have to back pay and vacation credits.

Q I am an artist-in-residence, where half of my pay has been housing and half a cash stipend. Recently my nonprofit employer refused to pay my cash stipend and decided I will now work for housing only. I asked for my back pay and was slapped with an eviction notice. Can an employer change a working agreement of two years unilaterally? --L.R., Venice * A An employee is entitled to be paid for all hours worked at the rate that was in effect when the work was performed.

The federal government's continuing campaign against garment industry sweatshops has led to the recovery of $170,000 in back wages for employees at two Los Angeles firms where widespread major labor violations were discovered, according to a report released Friday. The report, issued quarterly by the Labor Department, also said authorities recovered a total of $699,323 in back wages due 2,486 garment workers nationwide from April through June.

Even if discrimination plays a role in a worker's firing, an employer will not be liable for back pay or other compensation if the employee would have been fired anyway for poor performance, the California Supreme Court decided Thursday. The 6-0 ruling, with one justice recused, is likely to change the way most discrimination cases are handled in California, lawyers in the case said. In the past, employees could receive compensation, including back pay and damages, and win reinstatement if they could prove that discrimination was "a motivating factor" in a firing.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. will take back compensation from employees responsible for trading losses that it said have so far totaled $5.8 billion. Three London-based employees responsible for the bank's bungled derivatives trades have left the bank and will be subject to maximum claw-backs, executives said Friday morning. The claw-backs would equal about twice the employees' annual compensation, though JPMorgan execs would not detail how much would be taken back, nor would they name the employees.

You're always telling your mother you owe her. Now, the American Coalition for Labor Reparations has a worksheet you can use to calculate exactly how much back pay Mom deserves. Here's the logic: “Every laborer deserves a wage. Your mother went into labor for you and has never been repaid.” We should mention that the coalition doesn't exist for most of the year - it's a gag dreamed up by ad agency Mother New York. There's even a faux PSA video featuring a crew of mothers - some describing pretty graphic scenarios.

NEW DELHI - Hundreds of Air India pilots did not report to work Thursday, the fourth day of a sickout to protest their treatment by management, a dispute that so far has resulted in the cancellation of numerous international flights and cost about 45 pilots their jobs. Officials said the Mumbai-based airline was forced to cancel more than 35 international flights this week, including several bound for New York and Frankfurt, because of the protest. India's aviation minister called the sickout illegal, the airline said it had fired some pilots, and a high court called for negotiations.

Mike Leach coached Texas Tech to college football prominence, directing the nation's top passing game and soundly defeating Nebraska and Oklahoma two seasons ago. Before the Red Raiders played in a bowl game that year, he was fired. The sport has continued to peak in popularity and sink in scandal since, with Leach's tale producing his book "Swing Your Sword," which advances his contention that university friction toward paying a free-spirit football coach more than $1 million combined with accusations aired by ESPN college football analyst Craig James to force his ouster.

It is particularly rich ? pardon the expression ? that Meg Whitman this week tied up one of the remaining loose ends of her gubernatorial campaign by agreeing to pay her former housekeeper $5,500. Whitman, you'll remember, spent more of her own money in her race for governor than any candidate for any office in American history. And she lost. There are plenty of explanations for that, but one has particular salience: her dramatic rejection by Latinos, California's fastest-growing, soon-to-be-majority ethnic group.

A teacher acquitted of charges in the McMartin preschool molestation trial should receive back pay with interest for the time she was on compulsory leave to defend herself, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Thursday. Judge Robert O'Brien said the Anaheim Union High School District should pay $183,000 to Peggy Ann Buckey for time she was out of work.

A woman fired from her county job on the day President Reagan was shot because she said, "If they go for him again, I hope they get him," will get back her job and more than $97,000 in back pay. U.S. District Judge Norman Black ordered Harris County on Thursday to reinstate Ardith McPherson Jackson in her job at a constable's office and give her back pay, with interest, to March 30, 1981.

When Nelson Mandela's grandson and Jacob Zuma's nephew took over the insolvent Grootvlei gold mine, east of Johannesburg, the workers thought they — and the mine — were saved. But things have only gotten worse for the workers, most of whom have been on strike since March over a portion of their salary they said they were not paid beginning in December 2008. Zondwa Mandela, grandson of the country's first black president, Nelson Mandela, and Khulubuse Zuma, nephew of the current president, are executives of Aurora Empowerment Systems, a private black empowerment company, which took over the mine about a year ago. Most workers think the only thing that can now save their futures — even if it has no effect on their back pay — is nationalization.

Workers at a suspected sweatshop in South Los Angeles will receive back pay and overtime, and an independent monitor will scrutinize the factory's activities in a settlement reached Wednesday between the owners and the city attorney's office. City Atty. Carmen Trutanich's office sued the company's owner-operator for allegedly failing to pay employees overtime and maintaining sweatshop conditions in the garment factory. The settlement will bring long-overdue compensation for unpaid overtime to employees and will require an independent monitor at the factory to oversee compliance with workplace laws, city attorneys said.