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FLSA

Company Records: What to Keep, What to Dump

07/21/2009
A records retention schedule ensures that an organization keeps the records it needs for operational, legal, fiscal or historical reasons, and then destroys them when they’re no longer useful. You have to know what you have and how long to keep it—legally and for your own business purposes—before you can establish an efficient records management system.

Changing an employee’s duties may require changing his FLSA classification

07/17/2009

These days, organizations have to do just as much (or more) with fewer employees. That may mean employees’ job duties and responsibilities change frequently. But be aware that such changes could alter the person’s classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act—and open you up to an overtime lawsuit.

Reducing salaries and hours: How to document?

07/17/2009

Q. We’ve reduced the salaries of our exempt employees and told them to work only 36 hours each week. Still, however, many of those employees continue to work 40 or more hours per week. Exempt employees feel uncomfortable documenting 36 hours, when, in actuality, they’ve worked many more hours than that. Should we ask exempt employees to document hours that are not necessarily true?

Job tasks changing? Don’t forget the FLSA

07/13/2009

Employees whose job tasks have changed may now be wrongly classified as exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen, one that could quickly eat up any temporary savings you’re trying to achieve—especially if it turns into a class-action suit.

Lawsuit: Minnesota strippers shouldn’t ‘pay for the pole’

07/08/2009

Exotic dancers at suburban Minneapolis’ King of Diamonds club pay the club a fee of $20 to $100 every night they work. King of Diamonds maintains the dancers are independent contractors and “pay for the pole” in order to earn tips. The club does not pay them an hourly wage. Attorney E. Michelle Drake sees things differently.

Changing an employee’s duties may require changing his FLSA classification

07/06/2009

These days, organizations have to do just as much (or more) with fewer employees. That may mean employees’ job duties and responsibilities will change frequently. But be aware that such changes could alter an employee’s classification under the FLSA—and open you up to an overtime lawsuit.

When can we legally dock employees’ salaries?

07/06/2009

Q. Under what circumstances can my business make deductions from an exempt employee’s weekly salary without putting the employee’s FLSA exemption in jeopardy?

Public employers not subject to some California overtime, pay rules

06/26/2009

In what may be a classic case of “do as I say, not as I do,” a California appeals court has ruled that public employers in the state don’t have to follow the same state overtime and pay rules that apply to private employers.

After cutting staff, can we require remaining employees to work overtime?

06/26/2009

Q. We recently downsized our department. As a result, the additional workload has shifted to the employees who still have jobs. Can we force those employees to work overtime?

Must we pay employees after an emergency forced us to close the office for a day?

06/26/2009

Q. We closed our offices for a day because of a phoned-in bomb threat, and we sent all our employees home. Do we need to pay them for showing up to work that day?