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Wages & Hours

Records trump ‘knowledge’ of co-workers’ hours

04/03/2013
Here’s some good news: If you have complete and accurate time records, an employee’s claims that he just “knows” what hours others work isn’t going to be enough to keep a lawsuit moving.

Feds seek more than $1 million from San Antonio restaurants

04/03/2013
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is seeking a fortune in fortune cookies from three San Antonio-area China Sea Restaurants after an investigation revealed massive minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping violations.

Frisco car wash cleans up act, pays employees back

04/03/2013
Genter’s Detailing in Frisco, Texas, has agreed to pay $22,345 to its employees follow­ing a DOL Wage and Hour Division investigation. The in­­vestigation revealed that the car wash and auto detailer regularly reduced the wages of 53 current and former employees by $200 to $400 for costs allegedly associated with damage to vehicles under their care.

New restaurant owner finds predecessor cooked the books

04/03/2013

Three lessons from a pending lawsuit in Dallas: 1. If your employees work overtime, pay them for it. 2. Don’t falsify records to cover your tracks. 3. Don’t sell your business to some­­one who is suing you for stiffing them out of overtime.

Keep careful pay records, or else courts will take employees’ word for it

04/03/2013
Here’s another powerful reason to maintain meticulous wage-and-hour pay records. If you don’t—and a worker claims you owe him money for unpaid work—the court will rely on the employee’s recollection or records.

Dallas company’s temp shell game doesn’t fool DOL

04/03/2013
Dallas-based Nieman Printing thought it had it all figured out when it hired two temp agencies to employ the same workers doing the same work, but on different days. The strategy: Keep workers from ever putting in more than 40 hours per week for one employer. Desired result: No overtime pay! DOL investigators saw through the charade.

Must unused ‘floating holidays’ be paid?

03/29/2013
Q. We gave eligible employees a “floating holiday” in lieu of having Dec. 31 as a paid holiday. We generally pay employees for all unused vacation, sick and personal time upon termination, but we have no policy regarding an unused floating holiday. Do we have to pay workers for any unused floating holidays upon termination?

Overbrook man sues Walmart, wants class action suit

03/29/2013
A former assistant manager at a Walmart store in Overbrook, Pa., is suing the retailer, claiming it repeatedly violated the FLSA by classifying assistant managers as exempt employees—and he wants to raise the stakes by turning the case into a class action lawsuit.

The price of having too few time clocks: $1 million

03/29/2013
Long lines of employees punching in and out has cost a California employer more than $1 million in fines. The problem: Quetico Manufacturing had only three time clocks to handle 865 workers. The delays cheated employees out of overtime pay.

Golf firm finds hazard of missing paydays

03/25/2013
The DOL has ordered Charlotte’s Carolina Trail Golf Part­­ners to immediately tee up $758,465 in back wages for 347 workers at seven courses who recently went several weeks without getting paid.