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FLSA

Minnesota Supreme Court clarifies employer penalties

06/10/2008
The Supreme Court of Minnesota has issued a decision clarifying penalties under the Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act (MFLSA). The ruling makes it clear that employers that don’t follow the law and don’t maintain the required wage-and-hour records may face large fines payable to the state …

No unjust enrichment claims allowed in state and federal FLSA cases

06/10/2008
Sometimes, attorneys representing disgruntled employees will try anything to make the charges stick. Now the federal district court in Minnesota has ruled that plaintiffs can’t add state unjust enrichment claims to standard overtime claims under the federal FLSA and Minnesota’s similar state law …

Hourly pay for highly paid workers

06/03/2008
Q. We want to hire certain highly paid workers at an hourly rate, but we don’t want to pay overtime at time and a half. These workers would perform exempt duties for purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act. What are our options? …

Instruct supervisors to prohibit working off the clock

05/30/2008
A Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime claim is one of the most dangerous lawsuits employers can face. If one or two employees claim they worked off the clock before or after punching the time clock, their attorneys may try to represent every employee companywide who did the same thing …

Seasonal employees and overtime pay

05/30/2008
Q. What are “seasonal employees”? Is it true that an employer does not have to pay them overtime?

Does your organization use volunteers or interns? Know the employment law implications

05/28/2008

This is the time of year when college students start serving summer internships. Often, students offer to work without pay just to get the experience. But does this influx of possible free labor carry hidden risks? Perhaps …

Tyson Foods beset by another overtime lawsuit

05/27/2008
Roughly 600 workers at the Tyson Foods meat processing facility in Logansport have filed suit seeking compensation for time they spent preparing for shifts and cleaning up afterward. The lawsuit is the latest in a string of “donning and doffing” overtime suits against Tyson and others in the meatpacking industry over what constitutes “compensable” activities …

Misclassifying employees an expensive mistake for Madison firm

05/27/2008
Madison-based Quest Diagnostics has agreed to pay more than $688,772 in back overtime wages to 238 employees following a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investigation. The DOL found that Quest misclassified as exempt the systems analysts working at all of the company’s facilities …

Burden on employer to justify exempt/Nonexempt classification

05/16/2008
When deciding on whether an employee is exempt or hourly, be prepared to justify why you classified an employee into the category you did. If you have any doubts about classification, seek out professional help. Getting it wrong can get very expensive, especially if you have incorrectly classified an entire group, and a court allows a class- or collective-action claim …

Federal minimum wage takes another 70-Cent jump in July—Rising to $6.55

05/15/2008
On July 24, the federal minimum wage will take the second step in the three-step increase that Congress approved last year. The wage floor will rise from its current $5.85 per hour to $6.55 per hour …