I have blogged numerous times about these automatic lunch deduction cases and have suggested remedies. Yet, these cases proliferate. Another very recent example is that of a hospital that has agreed to pay more than $4,000,000 to settle a FLSA collective action where the workers allege that their employer violated the Fair Labor Standards Act
The USDOL And The Joint Employer Doctrine: The Saga Continues
The USDOL has proposed a new cut-down (watered down?) test for determining when entities are a joint employer. Such a finding leads to the aggregating of employee hours which are worked at both places as well as rendering the entities jointly liable for wage-hour (e.g. overtime) violations.
The focus of the new proposal is a
New DOL Proposed Rule Will Affect What Is included (or Not) in Regular Rate for Overtime Calculation
Even the most well-intentioned employer who wants to comply with the FLSA will have trouble, as there are many gray, nuanced provisions and regulations in this law, especially on overtime computation. One of these is the requirement to include non-discretionary bonuses in the overtime calculation of non-exempt workers. That may now be changing as the
Employers Must Be Aware of “Sneaky” Working Time FLSA Collective Action Cases
I continue to blog about working time cases because these are the kind of lawsuits that can sneak up on an employer who does not realize that a certain pre-shift activity may in fact constitute working time under the Fair Labor Standards Act. This is again illustrated by a trucking company case where the Company
Another Successful Labor Contract Preemption Defense Prevails in FLSA Collective Action: Defense Practitioners Must Always Look for It!
What do I always say? If an employer is sued in a FLSA action, collective or otherwise, and is unionized, always look for a National Labor Relations Act/Labor Management Relations Act preemption defense. Well, it has happened again! A federal judge has dismissed a collective action alleging that a rehabilitation center did not pay nurses
Employee Status Will Not Be Determined by Judge in Conditional Certification Stage in FLSA Collective Action
There is no industry that is immune to wage hour or FLSA actions, including amateur sports leagues. In an interesting case, a federal Judge has granted conditional class certification to a class of members of an amateur football league who worked as referees and who were, they claim, compelled to perform the work of refereeing
LMRA Preemption Defense Works Yet Again: Defense Counsel Should Always Look for It!
Employers should always look for a preemption defense when a FLSA suit is lodged against a unionized client. Clear proof of that was just given by the Ninth Circuit when that Court held that unionized offshore oil rig workers could not pursue overtime claims because the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) barred the suit.
Yet Another Store Manager FLSA Lawsuit: The Hits Just Keep On Coming
When will employers learn? They keep classifying retail Store Managers and Assistant Managers as exempt, when these workers are often misclassified, not intentionally, but because the nature of their duties often tends to undermine the primary duty test and render them non-exempt. Another example is a recent case where Store Managers have been granted conditional
Another Retail Industry FLSA Collective Action On Misclassification Settles: What Employers Should Do To Be Proactive
The retail industry is notoriously prone to FLSA collective action misclassification lawsuits because there are many levels of management, especially so-called lower management, where the employees may/may not discharge actual/true supervisory powers. Another illustration of this principle has resulted in a large dollar settlement that will pay employees known as “sales team managers” a fairly
FLSA Collective Action Travel Time Case Illustrates Nuances Of “Working Time” Conundrum
Working time claims/lawsuits take many forms and often arise out of seemingly unlikely circumstances. In a recent case, the Third Circuit ruled that temporary workers brought in to take over the jobs of locked out workers cannot receive pay under the FLSA for their time spent travelling to and crossing the picket line. The case