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FLSA

Know the risks of DOL’s new time sheet app

06/16/2011
A few weeks ago, U.S. employees gained a powerful new tool to prove their wage-and-hour cases: the new “Timesheet” app for smartphones from the DOL’s Wage and Hour Divi­sion. Impact: Now employees may claim they have the most accurate time records! All the more incentive for you to accurately track actual hours worked—not just hours written on a time sheet.

Feds issue new tip credit pooling rules

06/15/2011
Employers are now free to set the percentage of employee tips that can be placed in a tip pool. In years past, several court decisions conflicted with the U.S. Department of Labor’s position restricting the amount of tips an employer could require to be pooled.

Thinking of stiffing illegal immigrant workers? Better be ready to defend huge class-action suit

06/15/2011
The fact that a worker is in this coun­try illegally does not mean he can’t file a Fair Labor Standards Act overtime lawsuit. What’s more, that case can turn into a class-action suit, representing all other similarly situated illegal workers.

What are the details on new FLSA regulations?

06/10/2011
Q. I’ve heard there are new Fair Labor Standards Act regulations coming. When do the final regulations updating the FLSA become effective?

With DOL cracking down, get employee classification right

06/10/2011
In the past year, the U.S. Department of Labor has renewed its focus on combating employee misclassification, and there has been a recent significant increase in the number of wage-and-hour lawsuits. In many of these cases, workers are challenging their designation as exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Feds issue new tip-credit pooling rules

06/10/2011
Employers are now free to set the percentage of employee tips that can be placed in a tip pool. In years past, several court decisions conflicted with the U.S. Department of Labor’s position restricting the amount of tips an employer could require to be pooled.

Don’t court lawsuit by allowing early clock-ins

06/10/2011
Beware if you allow employees to clock in early, but tell them not to start work before their scheduled start times. If early clock-ins are routinely unpaid, there may be a class-action lawsuit brewing.

More OT lawsuits? There’s an app for that

06/09/2011
Last month, U.S. employees gained a powerful new tool to prove their wage-and-hour cases: the new “Timesheet” app for smartphones from the DOL’s Wage and Hour Divi­sion. Impact: This is more incentive for employers to accurately track employees’ actual hours worked—not just hours written on a time sheet.

Feds issue new tip-credit pooling rules

06/08/2011
Employers are now free under federal law to set the percentage of employee tips that can be placed in a tip pool. But Minnesota employers need to be aware of a crucial difference between federal and state laws.

Federal appeals court rules on OT for city firefighters assigned to state duty

06/08/2011
Government entities that employ fire­fighters face thorny Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) problems. The law requires overtime pay for fire­fighters who work more than 204 hours in a 27-day period. But that can get complicated when a local agency assigns its firefighters to battle wildfires for the state.