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FLSA

The impact of partial-day absences on exempt status

04/17/2009

Q. We have a policy that allows exempt employees to take partial days off and have the balance of the day charged against their accrued vacation time in two-hour increments. I have concerns that this arrangement—despite the fact the exempt employees are getting their full salaries—could appear that they’re being treated as hourly employees, thus jeopardizing their FLSA exemption status.

Can we pay hourly staff comp time instead of OT?

04/17/2009

Q. I’ve heard conflicting answers: Is it legal for our company to pay our hourly employees comp time instead of paying time-and-a-half for overtime worked?

When making exempt/nonexempt call, actual duties trump résumé or job description

04/14/2009

Don’t rely on old job descriptions or résumés to prove you have properly classified an employee as exempt from overtime. Instead, make sure employees’ job descriptions actually reflect the day-to-day work they’re performing. Little else counts.

United Airlines to pay $850,000 settlement for disability bias

04/14/2009

Chicago-based United Airlines agreed to settle a disability discrimination suit stemming from practices at San Francisco International Airport. The case involved a United policy restricting overtime for workers who had been placed in light-duty assignments.

Family Dollar owes big bucks to misclassified managers

04/14/2009

Family Dollar Stores recently got a lesson in the nuances of overtime labor law. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the $35.6 million settlement of an FLSA class action suit brought by store managers at the discount chain.

Slumping auto market puts salespeople out of commission

04/14/2009

Commissioned salespeople are hurting in this economy, but their employers may be feeling the pinch, too. Take, for example, Rick Case Enterprise, a company that owns several Broward County auto dealerships.

Check overtime, other pay practices: DOL cracking down after scathing report

04/14/2009

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is preparing to crack down on employers who stiff workers out of overtime pay after a government uncovered a pattern of ignoring alleged employer wrongdoing. As enforcement gears up, we’ve got resources you can use to make sure you’re in compliance.

Furloughs and unpaid time off create wage-and-hour problems

04/07/2009

Family-friendly practices have suddenly taken a back seat as struggling businesses focus on the bottom line. Now employers are looking for other ways to give employees time off, albeit involuntarily. But when employers impose furloughs, forced shutdowns and reduced work schedules on exempt salaried employees in increments of other than a full week, it can jeopardize exemptions under the FLSA.

Can we dock a worker for not wearing a company shirt?

04/07/2009

Q. I own a construction company. We require all employees to wear a company shirt. If an employee does not wear a company shirt, he or she is assessed a $25 per day penalty, which is deducted from the next paycheck. Is this penalty legal?

Must we pay workers’ weekend travel time to new location?

04/07/2009

Q. We are closing one facility and laying off a large number of workers. In lieu of immediate layoffs, however, we want to temporarily transfer some maintenance employees from another facility 800 miles away. They have agreed to perform this work, which will take about three months. Do we have to pay them for the time spent traveling to the new work location, which will occur over a weekend?