Why I Am I Not Getting Paid Per Diem

My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: LA I was employed in the state of LA for 10 months while my family and permanent residence was in TN. I leased an RV to live in and paid all my own living expenses. I was told upon being hired by the hiring manager that he could not pay me per diem. Sometime after employment, I discovered that other employees were getting paid per diem. My foreman told me that I could apply and receive per diem. Shortly after, I quite the company. I have applied for the past per diem. I can't get any response from the company either way. Is this employer required to pay the past per diem ? If so, what legal action should I take to get the per diem ?

Are you talking about a per diem for living expenses?

If so, no, you are not legally entitled to a per diem, no matter what any other employee received and no matter what the foreman told you.

Were you paid wages for the work you did?

why would anybody be due per diem pay?

is the per diem pay a union issue, a company issue, some other controlling entity?

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Quoting cbg

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Are you talking about a per diem for living expenses?

If so, no, you are not legally entitled to a per diem, no matter what any other employee received and no matter what the foreman told you.

Were you paid wages for the work you did?

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yes I was paid wages per contract

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company issued based on job contract between the owner and contractor

if this is a contractual issue, if the other party fails to fulfill the contract, you would need to sue them for your damages.

Nowhere in the US does the law says that you have to be paid a per diem, or that you have any legal entitlement to one.

If and only if you have a legally binding and enforceable contract that expressly states that you will receive a per diem, you would receive it as per the contract. If you do not have a contract that spells out a per diem, then you are SOL.

Do YOU have an agreement that says you will receive a per diem? It doesn't matter a damn what other employees have - does YOUR contract say that you get one?

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Quoting cbg

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Nowhere in the US does the law says that you have to be paid a per diem, or that you have any legal entitlement to one.

If and only if you have a legally binding and enforceable contract that expressly states that you will receive a per diem, you would receive it as per the contract. If you do not have a contract that spells out a per diem, then you are SOL.

Do YOU have an agreement that says you will receive a per diem? It doesn't matter a damn what other employees have - does YOUR contract say that you get one?

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he posted this while I was posting my response so I missed it:

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company issued based on job contract between the owner and contractor

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It sounds like the contract may be charging the owner money for per diem. Of course that doesn't mean the employer has contracted with the employee to pay the per diem.

given this from OP's first post:

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I was told upon being hired by the hiring manager that he could not pay me per diem.

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sounds like he has no claim for it as he was told he would not be paid per diem from day one.

Sounds that way to me too. It was the cross post that confused me. Thanks for the clarification.

Thanks for all the help here. Much more detail to this case, just trying to keep it simple and to the point. The hiring manager was fired a few months after my hire and basically lied to me about paying per diem. With my proof of residency in TN and my rv lease in LA, there is no question that the company would have started paying the weekly per diem if I had stayed. The real question now is will they pay back the per diem from the past. I am sure they don't want to and I will have to petition the court to hear the case. I feel strongly if a judge would consider all the evidence he would at lease grant partial payment. There was a set rate of $525 per week per diem paid to all employees that meet the requirements of living out of town. This per diem was set by the company when the job started and was to run until the project ended. Any other comments would be appreciated.

Do you, or do you not, have a contract that states you will receive a per diem?

Yes or no.