FLSA

Exempt status: What counts as ‘discretion’?

02/02/2010

A simple mistake—wrongly classifying employees as exempt when they should be hourly—can easily balloon into a multimillion-dollar overtime lawsuit. Often, the trick is knowing which workers exercise enough discretion to be properly labeled administrative exempt professionals. Our exempt/nonexempt self-audit helps you make the call.

Are your ‘admin’ workers really salespeople?

02/01/2010

It’s time to take a fresh look at how you classify your sales and administrative employees—because attorneys across New York will be on the lookout for good class-action lawsuits in the wake of a recent decision by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Momentive restores some pay, but NLRB seeks more

02/01/2010

Colonie-based Momentive Performance Materials has rescinded temporary pay cuts it instituted last spring, restoring salaries for all exempt employees other than senior managers. Meanwhile, hourly employees recently got encouraging news from the National Labor Relations Board …

What are the notice requirements when moving someone from exempt to nonexempt?

01/27/2010

Q. We’re planning to demote an employee for performance reasons. He’d move from a supervisory job (salaried/exempt) to an hourly job, so we would cut his pay by about $10,000 a year. What kind of notice must we give him regarding the pay cut and exemption status?

Union contract doesn’t cover ‘donning and doffing’? You may not have to pay

01/22/2010

For many employers, it’s hard to imagine any advantage in having a union workplace, so this news may come as a bit of a surprise. At least under some limited circumstances, having a unionized workforce may protect some employers from FLSA lawsuits related to putting on and taking off protective gear before and after a shift.

The DOL is delivering on its vow to hire more investigators

01/20/2010

The threat of more rigorous enforcement—the U.S. Department of Labor now has 250 more wage-and-hour cops—is yet another reason to double-check to see whether your exempt employees are truly exempt.

The HR I.Q. Test: January ’10

01/18/2010

Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz …

Must all hours count toward OT ‘total hours’?

01/18/2010

Q. We currently pay employees for time spent driving from the office to work sites. We pay minimum wage for that driving time, but we don’t count those hours toward “total hours” worked for the week. That keeps overtime down because their hours aren’t accumulating until they arrive at the job site. Is this OK?

Before stiffing workers, ask: Do I look good in orange?

01/14/2010

Here’s an important lesson for employers: Judges don’t want to hear any excuses from employers that fail to pay back wages when ordered to do so. In fact, they’re perfectly willing to throw you in the slammer if you do. Example: Recently, the owners of a cleaning service were jailed when they didn’t make court-ordered payments of back wages owed to 385 workers.

Settlement nets more OT pay, vacation for Oakland cops