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FLSA

Pennsylvania wage & hour law: Understand the new rules for 2007

01/01/2007

New wage and hour laws came in with the new year for Pennsylvania employers. Hidden in the new minimum-wage law fine print is a new set of rules governing everything from meal breaks to comp time …

Restaurant in Wayne accused of labor and wage violations

01/01/2007

Three former employees at a Chinese restaurant in Wayne filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging unfair labor practices …

New Class-Action Suits Show Need to Track Hours Closely

01/01/2007

In light of a slew of recent wage-and-hour lawsuits against big companies like Wal-Mart and UPS, now’s a good time to review how you track the hours worked by employees. Reason: Following the Wal-Mart lawsuit lead, clever lawyers now seek out one or two unhappy employees who want to start a class-action case under the Fair Labor Standards Act …

FMLA: All managers can face personal liability for leave mistakes

01/01/2007

If you’re looking for incentives to get managers and supervisors to pay attention during FMLA training sessions, look no further. Simply point out that they can be held personally liable if they deny FMLA benefits to which an employee is entitled …

Brokerage house overtime case serves as cautionary tale

12/01/2006

One disgruntled worker’s lawsuit has turned into a class-action headache for brokerage firm Barclay’s Capital …

Be prepared to back up hours worked for exempt staff, too

12/01/2006

You carefully track all hours worked by nonexempt employees. But do you know how many hours your exempt employees work? That can become a problem if you misclassify an employee as exempt when the person should have been hourly …

Prepare to pay overtime to more delivery drivers

12/01/2006
You no longer can rely on the "motor carrier exemption" in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to avoid paying overtime to delivery drivers who use vans and pickup trucks on their routes.

Don’t dock hours from salaried employee’s pay

12/01/2006

Q. We have a salaried employee who holds down a second job. Sometimes, she leaves early on Fridays and comes in late on Mondays because the second job overlaps with our office hours. Can we deduct anything from her pay after she has used up her vacation and leave time? Or do we have to pay her even though she leaves early and comes in late? —D.J., Virginia

Pay travel expenses for new, longer commute?

12/01/2006

Q. One of our employees normally reports to a facility. But he’s out on workers’ comp and is doing light duty in the office, which is an extra hour of commuting time. I know we don’t have to pay for his commuting time, but what about his travel expenses? —M.T., Massachusetts

Unpaid helper or official employee? Beware blurry line

12/01/2006

If you allow someone to perform work yet you never officially hire the person, don’t think you can avoid paying by calling her a volunteer. She’s your employee and must earn at least minimum wage …