FLSA

Your dollars at risk: Protect yourself from personal liability

12/13/2011

HR pros spend a lot of their time ensuring that their companies comply with the law so they don’t wind up in court and lose big bucks to a jury verdict. But more and more, they find themselves defending not their employers’ bottom lines, but their own bank accounts. Here’s how to protect your personal funds.

Employees can’t ‘volunteer’ to do extra work for free

12/05/2011

An hour worked must be an hour paid, according to the FLSA. For private employers, that means there’s no such thing as an employee putting in “volunteer” time. While the FLSA has been around for decades, some employers still think they can circumvent this inconvenient truth.

Does our ‘sick leave bonus’ count toward employee’s regular rate of pay?

11/30/2011

Q. We pay a bonus for not using accrued sick leave. Does that count when determining an employee’s regular rate of pay for overtime purposes?

Can we offer more vacation in lieu of OT pay?

11/30/2011

Q. May an employer compensate an employee for overtime work by awarding additional paid vacation time equal to the total accrued overtime?

Beware hidden danger of class-action lawsuits

11/29/2011

Managers may think it’s safe to underpay employees by having them work off the clock or shaving time off their overtime tab because no one has complained. But it takes just one short-term employee to get the lawsuit ball rolling. Before you know it, you will be facing an FLSA and New Jersey Wage and Hour Law class-action suit.

General labor doesn’t make manager nonexempt

11/28/2011

Every year, hundreds of retail and restaurant managers sue, claiming they should be classified as nonexempt because they spend almost all their time doing the same kinds of tasks their subordinates do. But that’s not the test. In fact, managers often do double duty, performing manual tasks while also managing their workers.

Court eliminates one strategy for ending class-action litigation

11/23/2011

Resourceful defense attorneys have tried a few legal tactics to help employers defend against wage-and-hour class-action lawsuits. One strategy is to “tender an offer of judgment” to the named plaintiff before the case gets to the collective-action certification stage. Unfortunately, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has removed this arrow from defense counsels’ quiver.

Update in works for FLSA computer professional exemption

11/23/2011

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators wants to update the definition for computer professionals under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Computer professionals who earn more than $27.63 per hour are currently exempt from the FLSA. But the bill’s sponsors claim the state of computer technology has rendered outdated old definitions of the IT profession.

Don’t let the FLSA’s pay rules snow you under this winter

11/21/2011

Winter isn’t a challenging season just because of the lousy weather. It’s tough on payroll staff, who must ensure that the company’s pay policies jibe with the Fair Labor Standards Act when employees leave early, arrive late or just stay home because of snow. Here are the rules for nonexempts and exempts.

What are the rules on setting a late policy?

11/18/2011

Q. We would like to institute a rule subjecting employees to discipline for clocking in late. Are we permitted to do this even though we round our employees’ time to the nearest quarter-hour?