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Wages & Hours

Four Dallas restaurants settle DOL wage disputes

07/31/2014
Workers at four Dallas-area restaurants will receive more than $188,000 following a U.S. Depart­­ment of Labor Wage and Hour Divi­­sion (WHD) investigation. The restaurants—Yes Buffet in Grand Prairie, Royal Buf­­fet in Rowlett and Crown Buffet and Win Chi­­nese Buffet in Dallas—underpaid 61 employees.

Workweek isn’t based on consecutive days

07/31/2014

Under the FLSA, employees are entitled to overtime for hours worked over 40 in any workweek. However, the law doesn’t specify how a workweek is determined…

Can sick leave hours count toward overtime?

07/25/2014
Q. Last week, one of our hourly employees was out sick on Monday, but she worked a total of 40 hours from Tuesday through Friday. She would like to use her sick leave from Monday and claim overtime for those Monday sick-day hours. Must I pay her overtime for her Monday hours?

Legislation will end employers’ annual wage-notice scramble

07/09/2014
On June 19, 2014, New York Assembly and Senate passed legislation eliminating a Wage Theft Prevention Act requirement that employers must provide wage notices to all employees by Feb. 1 each year.

NYC construction workers gain $4.9 million in back pay

07/09/2014
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has announced a settlement with federal contractor MDG Design & Construction, the prime contractor on the Grand Street Guild public housing construction project on New York’s Lower East Side.

TGI Fridays served with class-action lawsuit

07/07/2014
Hospitality giant Carlson Res­­tau­­rants, headquartered in Caroll­­ton, faces a class-action suit alleging numerous Fair Labor Standards Act violations at TGI Fridays restaurants nationwide.

NLRB dings Fort Worth company for contract violation

07/07/2014
Three employees of FTSS Joint Ven­­ture will receive $105,000 in back pay and damages after the NLRB ruled the company violated the National Labor Relations Act when it unilaterally eliminated one job and created new, lower-paying positions to replace those held by the employees.

Harrisburg, Pa. strip club faces FLSA undressing

07/02/2014
A Harrisburg area gentlemen’s club faces a federal lawsuit alleging it failed to pay exotic dancers the minimum wage and proper overtime. Four dancers filed suit in federal court charging the club violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by misclassifying them as independent contractors.

Male employee needs to ‘support his family’: Is that a legal reason to pay him more?

07/02/2014
Here’s a warning for any HR pro or supervisor involved in hiring or pay decisions: Avoid sexist comments about compensation, and steer clear of increasing an employee’s salary because he’s the family breadwinner and, thus, “needs” more money.

NLRB makes hospital cough up back pay

06/24/2014
Keck Hospital of USC, formerly the USC University Hospital, has ended a labor dispute by agreeing to pay $87,839 to four employees affected by its decision to unilaterally eliminate an extra shift bonus and a mandatory on-call schedule.