LOS ANGELES, Feb. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Wilshire Law Firm is happy to announce that Justin F. Marquez, Esq., has become the firm’s 13^th attorney since its founding in 2007. Specializing in high-stakes class action litigation, Mr. Marquez frequently represents clients in complex cases—in 2018, he successfully recovered over $10 million in lost wages on behalf of workers. He has experience with Consumer Protection, Wage & Hour Class Actions, Qui Tam Claims, Employee Harassment and Discrimination, and Wrongful Termination cases.

“I’m excited to be joining an award-winning legal team that is as committed to excellence as I am,” said Marquez. “I hope to continue the advancement of Wilshire Law Firm’s advocacy for consumers everywhere.”

Prior to joining Wilshire Law Firm, Mr. Marquez was able to obtain several notable settlements, including a $2.5 million settlement in 2018 in which the district court judge found him to be an “experienced and successful litigator.” His work has received much praise from his legal contemporaries—Mr. Marquez was selected as a Southern California Rising Star by Super Lawyers from 2017 to 2019, and in 2016 and 2017 he received invitations to The National Trial Lawyers: Top 40 under 40. His winning argument in Yocupicio v. PAE Group, LLC, 795 F.3d 1057 (9^th Cir. 2015) has been featured in several prominent outlets, including Wright & Miller’s Federal Practice and Procedure, and can be viewed on YouTube.

Since it was started in 2007 by Founding Partner and Managing Attorney Bobby Saadian, Esq., JD/MBA, Wilshire Law Firm has recovered more than $350 million dollars for our clients. Our firm has steadily grown since then, doubling in size to more than a dozen lawyers within the past year. To get started with your free case consultation, call Wilshire Law Firm today at (800) 522-7274 or fill out our online contact form.

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SOURCE Wilshire Law Firm

ATLANTA, Feb. 13, 2019 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — The Home Depot^® has been highlighted as a global leader on corporate climate action and continues to pursue its sustainability goals with new renewable energy initiatives in 2019.

CDP, an environmental impact non-profit, has named The Home Depot to its Climate Change “A” List for its actions to cut carbon emissions and mitigate climate risks.

Every year, thousands of companies disclose data about their environmental impacts to CDP for independent assessment and receive scores of A to D- for how effectively they are tackling climate change.

New to The Home Depot’s CDP report this year is its commitment to a Science Based Target for scope 1 and 2 emissions with reduction goals. The company is aiming for a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and a 50% reduction by 2035.

“Managing carbon emissions has been a focus for Home Depot for more than 10 years,” says Ron Jarvis, vice president of environmental innovation. “Our dual strategy to reduce our total energy use and create a cleaner energy portfolio has helped us to reduce our absolute carbon emissions by over 3 million metric tons since 2009.”

As a part of its overall renewable energy strategy, The Home Depot is working to procure 135 megawatts of energy from various alternative sources by the end of 2020. To make additional progress toward its goal, The Home Depot is announcing major investments in wind and solar for 2019.

Wind Power Expansion
The Home Depot is expanding its wind-powered renewable energy program by adding a third offsite wind project. The company will purchase enough wind energy from the Pretty Prairie Wind Project in Kansas to power about 40 stores for a year. The home improvement retailer currently partners with two operating wind farms in Texas and Mexico.

The Pretty Prairie Wind Project, owned and operated by a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, is located in Reno County, Kansas. The larger wind farm is expected to create hundreds of construction jobs, up to 20 full-time operational jobs, and provide an estimated $77 million in local community benefits.

Through a 15-year power purchase agreement, The Home Depot will purchase 15 megawatts (MW) of the wind farm’s 220 MW capacity once it is operational in late 2019. The farm will feature 83 wind turbines that can produce enough power to provide more than 50,000 average U.S. homes with clean electricity each year.

Solar Power Expansion
In addition to the Kansas, Texas and Mexico wind farms, the company also procures energy from solar farms in Delaware, Massachusetts and Minnesota with a combined annual output of 25.0 million kilowatt hours (kWh). Forty-five U.S. Home Depot stores now have operational rooftop solar systems, and the company plans to expand its residential rooftop solar offerings.

To learn more about how The Home Depot is reducing its environmental impact visit https://corporate.homedepot.com/responsibility.

About The Home Depot
The Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,286 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. In fiscal 2017, The Home Depot had sales of $100.9 billion and earnings of $8.6 billion. The Company employs more than 400,000 associates. The Home Depot’s stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

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SOURCE The Home Depot

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Feb. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Someone may ask you to be their Valentine on Feb. 14, but they probably won’t try to buy your love.

That’s the conclusion of Debt.com’s second annual Valentine’s Day spending survey. Of the more than 3,000 adults polled, a mere 2 percent expect their significant other to spend more than $100, while nearly half (45 percent) expect them to spend nothing.

In the middle, 47 percent expect their significant others to spend $50. Compare that to the nearly $850 each American spent during last winter’s holiday season.

While winter holiday spending increases almost every year, the anemic Valentine’s Day spending is largely unchanged from last year.  So what explains the money malaise on this day of love?

“I can think of three reasons,” says Howard Dvorkin, CPA and chairman of Debt.com. “First, Americans are still suffering a debt hangover from the winter holidays. Second, Valentine’s Day only requires you to buy for the ones you love – not the ones you simply like or just work with. Third, many Americans don’t feel the love about a holiday that tells us when to express our love.”

Another interesting finding was that if you are not getting a Valentine’s Day gift at all, or not getting the gift you think you deserve, that could be a sign of bigger financial problems. Dvorkin points to this survey question: “If your partner is having financial trouble would you still expect them to spend money on Valentine’s Day?” Almost 9 in 10 respondents said no. Even the 8 percent who said yes they would still expect a gift, added that this would make them concerned about the relationship.

If you think women value Valentine’s Day more than men, think again. Of the 45 percent who didn’t want their significant others spending anything, the split was almost even between the two genders. One last fascinating stat: Women don’t typically spend more than $100 on their significant others, but men had a wider range when asked ‘how much have you ever spent?’  Fifty-five percent said they spent over $100, and of that, 11 percent spent over $500.

For other fun love-and-money facts, see the full survey here.

About: Debt.com is the consumer website where people can find help with credit card debt, student loan debt, tax debt, credit repair, bankruptcy, and more. Debt.com works with vetted and certified providers that give the best advice and solutions for consumers ‘when life happens’.

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SOURCE Debt.com

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 11, 2019 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — The Labor Commissioner’s Office has cited a Southern California subcontractor for nearly $12 million in wage theft violations that left more than a thousand workers waiting weeks or months to be paid, only to receive a portion of what they were owed.

RDV Construction, Inc. hired crews to provide framing, drywall and other trade work for hotels, apartments and mixed-use buildings around Los Angeles. Over a 21-month period, the City of Industry-based company paid employees with checks that did not clear due to insufficient funds. After the checks bounced, RDV Construction failed to pay all wages due to the workers.  

“Dodging labor laws and stealing wages hurts workers and creates unfair conditions for law-abiding employers,” said California Labor Secretary Julie A. Su. “After a hard day’s work, the last thing a construction worker should have to face is a paycheck that bounces. Stealing earned wages from workers’ pockets is illegal in California and this case shows that employers who steal from their workers will end up paying for it in the end.”

The Labor Commissioner’s Office launched its investigation in January 2017 and determined that between 2014 and 2017, RDV employed more than 1,000 workers at 35 construction sites in the region, and typically worked their crews nine hours a day without proper rest breaks or overtime. Investigators also found the employer habitually and illegally withheld 10 to 25 percent of earned wages from the workers.

The citations issued total $11,943,054 payable to workers in unpaid wages and premiums including:

• $5,407,944 in waiting time penalties for failing to timely pay 1,089 employees
• $1,623,020 for minimum wage violations affecting 844 employees
• $1,692,430 in liquidated damages for those minimum wage violations
• $1,769,782 for failing to provide proper rest breaks to 1,125 employees
• $566,897 for failing to properly pay 1,111 workers overtime
• $882,981 for improper wage statements issued to 1,109 employees

RDV Construction Chief Executive Officer Rafael Rivas as well as project managers Juan Rivas and Nicolas Del Villar are jointly and severally liable for the citations issued to the corporation.

The Labor Commissioner’s Office launched an investigation of RDV Construction, Inc. after workers complained about pay violations to Carpenters Contractors Cooperation Committee, a non-profit labor-management organization.

“The Carpenters Contractors Cooperation Committee has been an excellent partner in identifying cases that will not only benefit the directly affected workers but also send a strong message to the industry,” said Su.

When workers are paid less than minimum wage, they are entitled to liquidated damages that equal the amount of underpaid wages plus interest. Waiting time penalties are imposed when the employer intentionally fails to pay all wages due to the employee at the time of separation. This penalty is calculated by taking the employee’s daily rate of pay and multiplying it by the number of days the employee was not paid, up to a maximum of 30 days.

Most workers in California must receive a paid 10-minute rest period for every four hours worked. If workers do not receive rest breaks as required by Industrial Welfare Commission orders for their occupation, the employer must pay one hour of pay at the worker’s regular pay rate for each workday that the break is not provided, and civil penalties of $50 per worker per pay period for the initial violation, which increases to $100 each for subsequent violations.

Enforcement investigations typically include a payroll audit of the previous three years to determine minimum wage, overtime and other labor law violations, and calculate payments owed and penalties due. Civil penalties collected are transferred to the State’s General Fund as required by law.

The Department of Industrial Relations’ Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, or the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, combats wage theft and conducts on-site inspections to investigate and enforce compliance with minimum wage and other California labor laws. Its wide-ranging responsibilities include retaliation complaint investigations, public works enforcement, licensing and registration, as well as multilingual labor law education and outreach for workers and employers.

In 2014, the Labor Commissioner’s Office under Julie A. Su’s leadership launched the Wage Theft is a Crime multilingual public awareness campaign. The campaign defines wage theft and informs workers of their rights and the resources available to them to recover unpaid wages or report other labor law violations.

Employees with work-related questions or complaints may contact DIR’s Call Center in English or Spanish at 844-LABOR-DIR (844-522-6734).

Members of the press may contact Erika Monterroza or Frank Polizzi at (510) 286-1161, and are encouraged to subscribe to get email alerts on DIR’s press releases or other departmental updates.

https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaDIR  
https://twitter.com/CA_DIR  
http://www.youtube.com/CaliforniaDIR
http://www.dir.ca.gov/email/listsub.asp?choice=1

The California Department of Industrial Relations, established in 1927, protects and improves the health, safety, and economic well-being of over 18 million wage earners, and helps their employers comply with state labor laws. DIR is housed within the Labor & Workforce Development Agency. For general inquiries, contact DIR’s Call Center at 844-LABOR-DIR (844-522-6734) for help in locating the appropriate division or program in our department.

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SOURCE California Department of Industrial Relations; California Labor Commissioner’s Office