Wage & Hour - Development & Highlights : New Jersey Labor and Employment Lawyer & Attorney : Fox Rothschild LLP Law Firm : Serving Essex County, Sussex County, Roseland, New Jersey

The US Department of Labor has resolved a legal action against a Texas company, Flour Enterprises Inc. for its failure to pay relief workers who participated in the Katrina clean up and rehabilitation efforts. The company will pay one million dollars to 154 workers. The case is entitled Solis v. Universal Project Mgmt., Inc., and was filed in the Southern District of Texas.

The DOL had also secured a default judgment against another Houston, Texas company for wages due workers which arose from the same investigation. That case is entitled Solis v. Universal Project Mgmt., Inc., and was filed in the same federal court..

Fluor, an engineering and construction firm, functioned as the General Contractor when it contracted with the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.  In turn, Fluor Enterprises subcontracted the work of inspecting trailers for the displaced people who were left homeless by the disaster to Universal Project Management.

The field investigation conducted by the DOL revealed that the companies did not pay time and one-half overtime, but rather (and against the law) paid only straight time for overtime hours.  A DOL official explained that “some employees involved in the inspection of trailers during the hurricane recovery worked up to 84 hours in a week without the required overtime compensation for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.”.

The Secretary of Labor observed that “workers who help rebuild our communities and secure the safety of local residents following natural disasters should be fairly and legally compensated for the work they perform.”

It is shameful that these employers should disregard such a basic tenet of wage-hour law, i.e. paying proper overtime, especially to workers who were likely not earning that high of an hourly wage to begin with. The mind boggles. I often take issue with Departments of Labor when defending/representing clients, but I applaud this use of the agency’s investigative and enforcement powers.
 

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In a case entitled Clifton Sandifer et al. v. U.S. Steel Corp. a federal judge has cut out some claims from a work time class action suit, but has allowed one major allegation to remain in the case. That cause of action involves whether the employees should be paid for the time spent in walking from their locker room to their work stations.

The case is in federal court in Indiana; the plaintiffs filed suit in December 2007. Unlike many class actions I have commented upon, this was not a misclassification lawsuit, but rather a work time case. The plaintiffs sought compensation for time spent donning, doffing, walking, showering and laundering personal clothing in excess of the 40-hour workweek. The employees allege that these “work” activities consumed 9-10 hours per week.

The judge threw out the portions of the case pertaining to the donning and doffing of protective clothing, agreeing with US Steel that the compensability of these activities was addressed in the parties’ collective bargaining agreement. The court also found that showering was not required by the company and therefore was a postliminary (i.e. after work) activity for which no compensation was required.

Similarly, even though instructions were provided on how to launder clothing worn under work gear, transporting and laundering clothing was not required by the Company and thus it was not compensable. The judge kept the walking to work station claim, rejecting the company argument that these were non-compensable preliminary and postliminary work. The judge also rejected the de minimis doctrine argument, finding that walking times varied widely throughout the plant.

Judge Miller also did not accept the argument that these claims were preempted under the National Labor Relations Act as they ostensibly involved interpretations of the collective bargaining agreement, rather than statutory violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
 

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