FLSA

Timeshare company to pay $868,000 in back wages

09/21/2010

Orlando-based Central Florida Investments will pay $868,443 in back pay and overtime to 1,065 employees to settle a complaint filed with the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Docking exempt worker for single day: Is it legal?

09/16/2010

Q. We require exempt employees who miss a full day for any reason to use either a sick day, personal day or vacation day in order to get paid for the full week. Is this appropriate? Is it permissible to pay them for less than a full week of work if they have used all of their paid leave time and still miss a full day of work?

Employees change clothes at work? Heed new pay rules

09/15/2010

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued a new interpretation letter that says time spent changing in and out of “protective clothing” (e.g., helmets, smocks, aprons, gloves, etc.) is considered paid time. Find more details and a link to the DOL letter at www.theHRSpecialist.com/clothing.

Beware legal risk of raising employee’s title in lieu of pay

09/09/2010

With nervous employers still keeping generous raises on the shelf, more companies are turning to job title promotions to show their appreciation. The risk: The titles themselves don’t reflect the duties of the position and required expertise, which can cause difficulty separating exempt and non-exempt employees.

Can we shuffle hours between weeks to avoid OT?

09/06/2010

Q. Employees at our construction company sometimes work more than 40 hours in one week, but far fewer than 40 the next. We have been transferring the extra hours to the next week. Can we do this?

Don’t shoot yourself in the foot! If you praise extra work, pay for it

09/02/2010

Nonexempt employees are entitled to be paid for all the hours they work. Before issuing a performance appraisal that hails hourly employees for coming in early and staying late, make sure they were appropriately compensated. Otherwise, your praise may come back to haunt you.

Novartis settles class-action sex bias suit–for $175 million

09/01/2010

Novartis Pharmaceuticals has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by female sales reps just two months after a federal jury awarded the plaintiffs $250 million in punitive damages. Novartis challenged that verdict, and the court had scheduled a hearing for November. Under the settlement, Novartis will pay $152.5 million in return for dropping its appeal.

Can employees also be independent contractors at the same company?

08/31/2010

Q. “Are there any legal issues with having some of our full-time permanent employees also having contracts to do subcontractor work (1099) for the same place they are employed?” — S.M., Wisconsin

Is pay required for after-hours work functions?

08/27/2010

Q. Can we require full-time nonexempt employees to attend work-related functions after regular hours? If so, should this time be compensated?

Can I be personally liable for misclassification?

08/24/2010

Q. Let’s say I do the payroll for a company and know that we are misclassifying employees (exempt vs. nonexempt; independent contractors vs. employees). And let’s say I advised the owner, but he chose to leave it as is. Could I be held liable as the payroll administrator?