Lately, there has been a lot of “action” from the USDOL on the thorny and misunderstood issue of travel time. The agency has just issued another Opinion Letter that addresses the issue of whether employers must pay workers for travel time on days when they spend part of the day working from home and the
I blogged the other day about a USDOL travel time Opinion Letter for the construction industry and foremen in that industry. The employer seeking the advice posed three scenarios and wanted answers about the foremen and the laborers that also ride in the trucks. In this installment, I look at the issue of compensable time
I have stated many times that I am pleased that the USDOL has taken again to issuing Opinion Letters which guide employers in complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act. I am particularly happy that the agency has issued an Opinion Letter dealing with travel time issues in the construction industry, as these issues are
I just posted on a travel time case the other day but I have a special fondness for these kinds of cases and enjoy watching the numerous, creative ways that plaintiffs try to convert ordinary travel into working hours, i.e. compensable. In a recent case, a class of employees whose job function was directing traffic
I have handled many travel time cases and can report, regretfully, that plaintiff-side lawyers are always seeking new and creative ways to make certain kinds of travel time compensable. A new case has been filed on this issue where oil and gas workers claim they are owed overtime for travel between company housing to their
I have defended many claims and lawsuits involving working time, especially travel time. Employees are continually seeking innovative ways to convert their otherwise non-compensable home-to-work travel into compensable work hours. These efforts often fail, as illustrated by a recent case where Chicago police officers sought pay for transporting and storing their guns and then retrieving
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
I have defended many off-the-clock working time cases and I submit that they are very dangerous for employers. This is because they are particularly amenable to class certification because it is likely that there is a common policy applicable to the members of the class. This premise is highlighted by a recent settlement for a
At long last, new USDOL Opinion Letters are bursting forward. Like Spring. The agency just issued three new letters on a variety of topics, including one of my favorites, travel time. The other letters address issues of compensable break time as well as the kinds of lump-sum payments that could be garnished for child support.
I blog a lot about working time cases because these are the issues can sneak up on an employer, even the most well intentioned and good faith employer. Travel time is one of these murky, arcane kind of activities that go unnoticed by companies until, often, a lawsuit is filed. Another example emerges. A group