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FLSA

Is our ‘working supervisor’ properly classified?

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?

Supremes to hear U.S. Steel ‘changing clothes’ case

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.

How to draw DOL scrutiny: Withhold pay, fudge time sheets

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.

Landscaping company illegally trimmed wages

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.

Night shift assignments: Must we pay more?

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?

Another reason to let managers set their own hours

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.

Prepare for more–and more expensive–pay litigation

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.

DOL’s 2014 budget request tips off coming enforcement blitz

04/17/2013
The DOL’s FY2014 budget request reveals plans to greatly step up enforcement of the FLSA, the FMLA and workplace safety laws—and a looming crackdown on independent contractor misclassification.

Pay for clothes-changing time? High court to rule

04/17/2013
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to rule on a controversial issue: whether time that employees spend putting on (and taking off) safety-related gear should be considered “paid time.”

Settling wage-and-hour case? You’ll pay worker’s lawyer, too

04/11/2013
Before you settle an FLSA claim for what you might consider “peanuts,” remember that any settlement will probably include court-authorized legal fees that you will have to pay to the employee’s lawyers. That’s because any success in collecting unpaid overtime or minimum wages also means the employee who wins that money is entitled to have his legal fees paid.