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Wages & Hours

Tyson Foods beset by another overtime lawsuit

05/27/2008
Roughly 600 workers at the Tyson Foods meat processing facility in Logansport have filed suit seeking compensation for time they spent preparing for shifts and cleaning up afterward. The lawsuit is the latest in a string of “donning and doffing” overtime suits against Tyson and others in the meatpacking industry over what constitutes “compensable” activities …

Contractor or employee? FedEx enters Round 2

05/27/2008
Continuing a case that has spanned the country, lawyers for approximately 25,000 FedEx Ground/Home Delivery workers who are challenging their classification as independent contractors have filed for summary judgment in federal district court in South Bend …

You can require employees to sign agreements to arbitrate employment disputes

05/27/2008
A federal court concluded that New Jersey contract law does allow employers to require employees to arbitrate most employment-related complaints. Plus, if an arbitration agreement contains terms that a court finds invalid, the court may throw those provisions out and still enforce the rest of the agreement …

Misclassifying employees an expensive mistake for Madison firm

05/27/2008
Madison-based Quest Diagnostics has agreed to pay more than $688,772 in back overtime wages to 238 employees following a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investigation. The DOL found that Quest misclassified as exempt the systems analysts working at all of the company’s facilities …

Burden on employer to justify exempt/Nonexempt classification

05/16/2008
When deciding on whether an employee is exempt or hourly, be prepared to justify why you classified an employee into the category you did. If you have any doubts about classification, seek out professional help. Getting it wrong can get very expensive, especially if you have incorrectly classified an entire group, and a court allows a class- or collective-action claim …

Reality check: TV producers face overtime claims

05/16/2008
Several workers from popular reality television shows have filed wage-and-hour claims with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, according to the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) …

Higher pay for LAX hotel workers as ‘Living wage’ law stands

05/16/2008
Hotels near Los Angeles International Airport will have to begin offering higher pay. The California Supreme Court has declined to review an appeals court decision upholding a city ordinance that requires the hotels to pay its workers the city’s living-wage rate …

Pyramid Breweries drafts $1.3 million settlement

05/16/2008
Seattle-based Pyramid Breweries has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by an employee claiming that employees at three Northern California brew pubs were denied meal and rest breaks …

Federal minimum wage takes another 70-Cent jump in July—Rising to $6.55

05/15/2008
On July 24, the federal minimum wage will take the second step in the three-step increase that Congress approved last year. The wage floor will rise from its current $5.85 per hour to $6.55 per hour …

Effort to extend statute of limitation for filing pay-Bias lawsuits fails in Congress

05/15/2008
Federal anti-discrimination law gives employees either 180 or 300 days (depending on the state they live in) from the time of an alleged unlawful practice to file an employment discrimination claim with the EEOC. A bill pushed by Democrats this year would have changed the 180/300 days statute of limitation in pay discrimination cases in a more employee-friendly way …