California Labor Commissioner Just Confirms at Public Hearing Withdrawal of Charges That BYD Paid Below California Minimum Wages

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- 11:30 am PT: The California Department of Labor Standards and Enforcement just now confirmed that the sub-minimum wage charges made against BYD in October and widely publicized has been withdrawn. 

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140128/PH54500LOGO )

"We welcome the Labor Commissioner's office dropping the false charges that BYD paid below minimum wages under California state law, as just confirmed on the recorded record," said Lanny J. Davis, attorney for BYD. "We wish this had come sooner - and we ask all media who published this false and damaging charge against BYD to publish just as conspicuously that the Labor Commissioner's office has withdrawn these false charges."

See the complete statement by Mr. Davis: 

"It is my understanding that BYD welcomes the decision by the California Labor Commissioner to dismiss as unmerited citations alleging that BYD paid below California's minimum wage to five professionals from China who temporarily worked for BYD in the latter half of 2014.

BYD produced substantial documents to the Commissioner's office proving that BYD paid these professionals the equivalent of above the state minimum wage of $8.00 hour.  BYD documents prove that these professionals were in fact paid $12-$16 / hour.  Therefore, the Commissioner's office has today agreed to dismiss the minimum wage assessment based on the alleged under-minimum-wage payments.  All five of these professionals were no longer working for BYD in California by the end of 2013.

However, the Labor Commissioner's position is that BYD should have paid these five employees in U.S. dollars, not in their home currency (RMBs).  While BYD disagrees with this position as a matter of law, in the spirit of resolving this matter, BYD has agreed to pay $1,900 for this alleged error.

BYD appreciates the cooperation and communication that led to this resolution.

However the hearing will continue regarding two other alleged technical violations that BYD denies -- the alleged omission of two out of nine categories of information on check stubs of all employees; and the alleged denial of rest breaks for 8 employees who were permitted to choose to take one twenty-minute rest break, rather than requiring a split of this break into two ten-minute breaks against the employees' preference.

I AM PROUD THAT THIS Warren Buffett backed company has already created 50 American jobs with 100 more planned next year."

For BYD media inquiries please contact:  
Micheal Austin 
1-800-BYD-Auto 
[email protected]  
or 
Matthew Jurjevich 
1-800-BYD-Auto 
213-400-3383 cell 
[email protected]   

ABOUT LANNY J. DAVIS  
Lanny J. Davis, the principal in the Washington law firm of Lanny J. Davis & Associates, which specializes in legal crisis management, served as President Clinton's special counsel (1996-98) and as a member of President George W. Bush's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (2006-07). Davis is a lawyer, crisis manager, consultant, author, and television commentator who counsels individuals, corporations, and others under scrutiny on crisis management and legal issues with developing legal, media and governmental strategies that are designed to best produce successful results for his clients. In 2005 President George W. Bush appointed Lanny to serve on the five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, created by the U.S. Congress as part of the 2005 Intelligence Reform Act. In that capacity, he received the highest level security clearances so that he could be fully briefed and "read in" to the various anti-terrorist surveillance and financial tracking programs at the highest classified level. He has been a regular television commentator and has been a political and legal analyst for MSNBC, CNN, CNBC and network TV news programs and has published numerous op-ed/analysis pieces in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and other national publications. He is currently a contributor to Fox News, and has a "Purple Nation" column that appears regularly in The Hill, The Huffington Post, FoxNews.com, The Daily Caller, and Newsmax. He is the author of the book "Crisis Tales -- Five Rules for Handling Scandal in Business, Politics and Life" published by Simon & Schuster. He can be followed on Twitter @LannyDavis. His website is: www.lannyjdavis.com.

ABOUT BYD  
BYD is a publicly-traded company with no Chinese government ownership. In fact, U.S. investors own over 60% of the public stock, with Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway owning 9.9% of that amount. Mr. Buffett and his colleagues recognize BYD's breakthrough battery and EV technologies: an electrified, 24-hour, and long-range battery that provides emission-free, silent, and economic public and private transportation. As the world's largest manufacturer of rechargeable batteries, BYD's mission is to create safer and more environmentally-friendly battery technologies, and this has produced the BYD Iron Phosphate Battery. This fire-safe, completely recyclable, and incredibly long-cycle technology has become the foundation of BYD's clean energy platforms.

SOURCE Lanny J. Davis