FLSA

Performing same tasks as staff won’t eliminate a manager’s exemption

01/02/2012

An increasing number of those managers are filing FLSA lawsuits, claiming they should be classified as nonexempt, hourly employees—and, thus, due overtime—because they spend most of their time doing the same tasks as their subordinates. But that’s not the test.

Employer wins commute dispute

12/28/2011

Employees must be paid for their pre-shift or post-shift activities, if those activities are integral and indispensable to the performance of their principal jobs. That can stretch a workday and possibly require you to pay for employees’ commuting time. But not all pre-shift or post-shift work is the same.

Beware management push-back on HR decisions

12/21/2011

As an HR professional, you may come across employment practices that you think violate the law. What you do with that concern and how you express it may make the difference between engaging in protected activity or not—and by extension, whether you can sue for retaliation if upper management punishes you.

‘Voluntary’ training time: To pay or not?

12/20/2011

Do you offer extra off-duty training for employees that, while technically voluntary, is strongly recommended? If training participants are hourly employees, chances are you will have to pay them for this time.

No minimum wage for court-ordered sex-offender work

12/14/2011

A federal court has ruled that work done by civilly committed sex offenders as part of their treatment program is exempt from the minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

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.