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Wages & Hours

Philly area hospital workers lose lunch break, file lawsuit

12/23/2009

Workers at nine Philadelphia area hospitals have filed a class-action overtime lawsuit claiming the hospitals’ practice of automatically deducting lunch periods deprives them of overtime pay.

Joint-employer status may come down to who cuts the paychecks

12/22/2009

You may be liable for wage-and-hour violations involving people you don’t ordinarily think of as actual employees. That’s because California uses a long list of factors to consider when deciding whether someone is an employee. One of those factors: Who provides the individual’s paycheck and makes tax deductions? Another factor: Who gives directions to the worker?

Shoe’s on other foot now as Puma agrees to wage settlement

12/22/2009

Puma North America has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that it failed to pay on time about $350,000 to hundreds of employees. Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank conditionally certified the class to include the company’s hourly, nonexempt retail store employees who received late paychecks between 2004 and 2008.

Check your records! Some old pay-bias cases get new life under Ledbetter law

12/15/2009

When President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act nearly a year ago, some employees got an additional chance to press their pay discrimination claims. That’s because the new law covers Equal Pay Act claims pending at the EEOC or in federal court as of May 28, 2007. Tip: If you haven’t already done so, now’s the time to review your compensation program to check for hidden sex bias.

Check your pay rates! Obvious male/female disparity is probably ‘willful’ discrimination

12/14/2009

The Equal Pay Act makes it illegal to base unequal pay on gender. If an employee can show that a violation was “willful,” she has up to three years to sue after the last allegedly discriminatory paycheck; only two years if it’s not willful. Heads up: Courts will probably call any obvious wage disparity a “willful” violation.

Beware professional exemption if college degree isn’t required

12/09/2009

Before concluding that a white-collar and seemingly professional skilled and scientific job is exempt from overtime, get expert advice. Blindly deciding that the job is exempt may mean trouble down the line.

Paterson: ‘Shared Work’ saved more than 10,000 jobs last year

12/09/2009

New York’s Shared Work program, which allows companies to cut hours rather than lay off workers, saved 10,500 jobs in the first eight months of 2009, according to Gov. David Paterson.

Is it legal to pay just a partial day’s pay for employees who work less than a full shift?

12/09/2009

Q. We scheduled an hourly employee to work a full day, but he worked only part of the day because we didn’t have enough for him to do. With the slowdown in our business, we expect this will be happening with this and other employees more frequently.Do we have to pay hourly employees for a full day of work or just the actual number of hours worked?

The do’s and don’ts of giving and receiving holiday gifts

12/01/2009

Q. Are there any legal issues regarding employee gift-giving during the holidays? What about giving or getting gifts from vendors?

How to hand out holiday bonuses

12/01/2009

Q. I started a business a few years ago, but this is the first year that I actually have an office with employees. I would like to give them holiday bonuses this year. What are the legal guidelines I should follow?