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FLSA

Does San Francisco car wash soak its Latino workers?

09/20/2011
The city of San Francisco has filed suit against a car wash for overtime and waiting-time violations. City Attorney Dennis Herrera and La Raza Centro Legal allege that Tower Car Wash, which has a contract with San Francisco to wash city-owned vehicles, failed to pay employees for the hours between when they arrive at work and when they’re permitted to clock in.

Off-hours training: Paid or unpaid?

09/14/2011
Q. We are requiring some hourly employees to take additional training. Those who work the day shift can attend the training in lieu of work. But employees who work the night shift will have to come in during the day. Must we pay extra for the night shift employees to attend the training?

Employees’ SSNs off limits in FLSA litigation

09/13/2011
The time to confirm employees’ Social Security numbers is when they’re hired, not when you’re slapped with a lawsuit for unpaid overtime and minimum wage violations. A federal trial court has ruled that an employer was out of bounds in requesting this information.

Managing ‘job creep’ in today’s jobless recovery

09/13/2011
More than half of all employees have taken on new roles during the eco­nomic downturn, according to a recent survey. That’s “job creep,” and it’s a big problem, with important employment law implications. It may already be hurting your company. Here’s how to fix it.

BellSouth ‘managers’ win class certification

09/13/2011

A federal judge has allowed an FLSA class-action lawsuit against BellSouth Telecommunications to move forward. The class consists of “level-one” managers who claim they have been misclassified so the company won’t have to give them overtime pay.

Reason prevails: Court limits supersized class actions

09/02/2011
Courts are beginning to rein in col­­lec­tive actions, in which a few com­­plaints about unpaid overtime can explode into massive litigation if courts aren’t careful.

Cut pay if warranted: It’s OK under FLSA

09/01/2011
The Fair Labor Standards Act grants many rights to workers, in­­cluding the right to overtime pay for working more than 40 hours in a workweek. It does not, however, prevent employers from lowering hourly wages if they choose to do so.

Don’t micromanage store managers

09/01/2011
Want to keep exempt status in place for your store managers? One key is to make sure regional managers don’t micromanage the store. Giving store managers autonomy helps show they truly do have managerial authority.

Working online before commuting: Is drive time paid?

08/30/2011

Many employees spend time at home before or after their workday checking email. For nonexempt employees, that work could count as paid time if it amounts to a “substantial” amount of time. But now some hourly employees have begun to raise a related issue: If they start the day with a few work emails, shouldn’t they be paid for the time they spend commuting to work?

When to pay for ‘on call’ hours? Ignorance of law isn’t an excuse

08/24/2011

Whether or not to pay employees for on-call time comes down to one question: How many restrictions are you putting on the employees’ personal time? The EEOC says on-call time be­­comes compensable under the FLSA “when the on-call conditions are so restrictive or the calls to duty so frequent that the employee cannot effectively use on-call time for personal purposes.”