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FLSA

Caution: ‘Going by the book’ may be retaliation

01/01/2008

When an employee everyone considered loyal suddenly starts complaining to a regulatory agency about alleged workplace violations, it’s natural to be upset. But resist the temptation to send the employee a message by suddenly enforcing the work rules zealously …

Can we reclassify past leave as FMLA?

01/01/2008

Q. If we weren’t immediately aware that the employee’s leave qualified for FMLA leave, can we make his leave retroactive to the first day he took off for the condition? …

Staples settles overtime suit for $38 million

01/01/2008

Staples Inc., the office supply retailer, announced that it will pay $38 million to settle overtime claims brought by California employees. The settlement ended a suit between 1,700 operations and sales managers in California who claimed they were misclassified as exempt executive employees under state law …

Clocking in and out: Can we round up or down?

01/01/2008

Q. My company tracks the hours of nonexempt employees through the use of a time clock. In determining the wages to be paid an employee, can we round up or down to the nearest five-minute increment? …

Working around employees’ jury duty obligations

01/01/2008

Q. What are California employers’ obligations with regard to workers who are called to serve on a jury? We often find our schedules disrupted, especially when the employee on jury duty gets stuck on a long trial …

FLSA—Not state law—Provides remedy for W&H violations

01/01/2008

Lawyers representing employees in class-action wage-and-hour cases often look for ways to boost the amount of damages they can collect. One of the most common ways to do that: Bring in a host of state laws to set the employer’s punishment. That won’t work any longer in North Carolina and other Mid-Atlantic states. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the tactic …

Aside from normal overtime, is there such a thing as mandatory holiday pay?

01/01/2008

Q. Our business has recently started staying open on certain national holidays, including Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. One of our employees was adamant that he was entitled to “holiday pay” for the time he worked on Thanksgiving, which he maintained was equal to 150% of his normal wage, even though he was not entitled to overtime that week. Do we have to pay a premium wage to employees who work on a federal holiday? …

Exempt/Nonexempt call: Don’t rely entirely on Labor Department opinion letters

01/01/2008

Over the past two years, the U.S. Labor Department has been issuing “opinion letters” fairly frequently, interpreting its own new overtime regulations and addressing specific questions posed by employers. But not every court will agree with the Labor Department’s opinion …

Consider paying for lunch breaks to avoid overtime claims

12/01/2007

Overtime lawsuits are becoming an epidemic. Lawyers file class-action lawsuits at the first hint that employees worked “off the clock,” either before the workday started or by working through parts of their unpaid lunch periods. There’s a simple way to avoid problems …

 

Ohio minimum wage and part-Year workplace

12/01/2007

Q. We operate an outside recreational facility that is only operational for three months a year. Our attorney has advised us that we are not required to pay the current Ohio minimum wage or overtime wage rate as stipulated on the Ohio minimum wage poster. I thought that all Ohio employers were required to pay the minimum wage rate and overtime, and do not want to violate the law. Is our attorney’s advice correct? …