05/20/2013
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a class-action lawsuit filed by a worker under the FLSA was properly dismissed because the worker’s suit was moot when she failed to accept an offer of judgment from her employer.
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05/20/2013
Employees filed a record 7,764 federal wage-and-hour lawsuits between April 1, 2012, and March 31, 2013, a 10% jump over the previous year, according to the Federal Judicial Center. Last year, FLSA lawsuits rose only 1%.
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05/10/2013
Q. I work for a nonprofit organization. Several hourly employees of the organization volunteer during nonworking hours. Is that OK?
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05/09/2013
When it comes to paying hourly employees for all hours worked, the best policy is to fix any mistakes as soon as you can. Chances are, doing so will reduce your liability down the line.
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05/02/2013
The U.S. Supreme Court on April 16 dismissed an FLSA suit, reaching the somewhat obvious conclusion that a wage-and-hour case that fails to attract class members has no standing to proceed as a class-action lawsuit.
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05/01/2013
Do you have employees classified as inside sales employees? If so, you may be courting trouble unless you are absolutely sure they qualify for the exemption. That’s especially true if you also don’t track any extra hours they work.
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05/01/2013
Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill that would allow nonexempt employees to choose compensatory time off instead of overtime pay. The Working Families Flexibility Act would let private-sector employees take an hour and a half of paid time off for every hour of overtime worked.
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04/30/2013
Garner-based KBE Landscaping will pay $14,651 in back pay to 33 employees after a Department of Labor investigation revealed the company failed to properly pay overtime to its hourly workers.
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04/25/2013
Q. We have an hourly worker who oversees both the maintenance and housekeeping departments and supervises two employees. In this job, he has the authority to hire and fire. However, he is also a “working” supervisor who performs maintenance in and around the property. Can his status be changed to salary/exempt?
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04/25/2013
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel. Workers at the company’s Gary, Ind., plant claim they should be compensated for the time it takes them to change clothes for work at the work site.
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04/25/2013
The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division doesn’t want to see any funny business when it comes to accurately recording hours worked or paying employees on time. Don’t even think about manipulating payroll systems. Doing so will result in double damages going back three years.
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04/25/2013
Cyrilla Landscaping in Coraopolis, outside Pittsburgh, has agreed to pay $39,091 in back wages to 29 workers following a DOL investigation—plus another $39,091 because the feds found the violations were willful.
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04/25/2013
Q. We aren’t getting volunteers to cover evening hours, so we’ve decided to rotate everyone into the evening shifts. I am hearing that we have to add a “shift differential” to those who work nights. Is this true?
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04/23/2013
Here’s incentive to give managers more control over their own schedules. It could prevent one disgruntled employee from turning a simple lawsuit into a class action that covers everyone else with a similar job. That might make the difference between a small verdict and a huge one.
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04/19/2013
Wage-and-hour litigation is the fastest-growing employment law threat employers face, according to a study by the Crowell & Moring law firm. It costs an average of $5.8 million to settle a wage-and-hour case, largely because so many are class-action lawsuits.
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