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FLSA

Is it legal to dock pay for break tardiness?

05/26/2010
Q. We give employees the choice of using two 10-minute breaks each day or combining them into one 20-minute lunch break. The employees are required to punch out and in for these breaks. We also have a policy that docks employees 15 minutes if they’re four or more minutes late returning from a break. Is this legal?

‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’ didn’t violate child labor laws

05/26/2010
“Jon & Kate Plus 8” fans can relax. Officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry revealed they investigated the reality show for alleged child labor violations, but found none. The revelation came during a hearing on the state’s child labor laws. But the show did not escape state scrutiny without problems.

Raceway Petroleum to pay $4 million in back wages

05/26/2010
The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division has obtained a $3.9 million judgment against Raceway Petroleum. The money will compensate 700 current and former employees whose wages were affected by Raceway’s violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Raceway’s owner will pay a $100,000 fine in addition to the wages.

Court: Pay worker for post-shift security check

05/25/2010
Best Buy recently agreed to a $902,000 class-action settlement that resolves claims that the company didn’t pay workers in New York stores for minutes spent going through security check lines at the end of their shifts.

Duplicate systems led to OT shortages, university worker says

05/24/2010

An enrollment counselor is suing the online University of Phoenix for unpaid overtime, and wants to expand her lawsuit to include everyone else who worked as enrollment counselors in California over the past three years. Diane Adoma claims the university deliberately underpaid for overtime hours.

Health Net heads to court to fight wage-and-hour lawsuit

05/24/2010
A former customer service rep at Health Net Inc., a nationwide health maintenance organization based in Woodland Hills, is suing the company for requiring off-the-clock work … and she’s trying to turn the Fair Labor Standards Act suit into a class action that could involve hundreds of workers.

DOL stops issuing wage-and-hour opinion letters

05/24/2010
Looking for an answer to your fact-specific FLSA or overtime question? For 50 years, employers could ask the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to issue an “opinion letter” to provide guidance. But the DOL stopped the practice in April, replacing the letters with “administrator interpretations.”

Are mortgage loan officers exempt?

05/17/2010
Q. I always thought that mortgage loan officers were exempt professional employees. Now I heard otherwise. Are mortgage loan officers exempt from the FLSA overtime requirements?

Are milk expression breaks mandatory?

05/17/2010
Q. I know a number of states already have laws that require employers to provide unpaid breaks to nursing mothers to express breast milk. Are there any federal laws providing for similar requirements?

To pay or not to pay interns? The DOL is cracking down

05/17/2010
Two factors have fueled a sharp rise in unpaid internships: Employers’ continuing need to hold down costs and the drop in the number of paying jobs for young people. But before you get too excited about using that free labor source, take note: The DOL and many state labor departments say they are stepping up enforcement and fines against employers that illegally don’t pay their interns.