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FLSA

Design your bonus program with the FMLA in mind

10/01/2006

Pennsylvania employers can look to a recent 3rd Circuit Court decision to keep their bonus plans in compliance with the FMLA. The case is the first of its kind in the country and provides employers with guidance beyond that found in the FMLA’s regulations. The decision is now law in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and the Virgin Islands …

Executive exemption requires true hiring/firing authority

10/01/2006

Before you classify supervisors as exempt executive employees, make sure you’ve given them enough authority to make that classification stick. That means delegating true hiring/firing power with the clear understanding that your organization will typically follow the supervisors’ recommendations …

Labor Department deploys extra investigators in Katrina-Recovery area to stop wage violations

10/01/2006

To ensure that employees working on Katrina recovery projects are paid according to the law, the U.S. Labor Department has sued a Houston drywall company for Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) violations …

Commute isn’t on the clock, Even 100+ miles

10/01/2006

Q. Should we pay for travel time if the employee’s drive from home to the first job site is a very long distance (example: Los Angeles to San Diego)? —L.S., California

No comp time for private firms; Flex time is OK

10/01/2006

Q. Can you please clarify if and when we can offer comp time to our employees? I’m confused. —S.L., West Virginia

How to pay employee called in during PTO leave

09/01/2006

Q. We have a nonexempt salaried employee who normally works Monday to Friday and is paid biweekly. She took a week’s vacation, which would come from her PTO (paid time off) bank. We had a customer emergency and called her into work on the Saturday of her vacation week. How should she be paid? Should she receive her PTO pay but have eight hours less of it charged against her PTO bank? Should she be paid for eight extra hours, plus her week of PTO pay? If we pay her both PTO and eight extra hours, do we have to pay her overtime? —W.M.

Clerical tasks don’t defeat administrative exemption

09/01/2006

Here’s one more reason to double-check your job descriptions: Some exempt employees may try to claim they’re entitled to overtime pay simply because they spend a fair amount of time on filing and typing …

Must you pay employees for the commute? Sometimes, yes

09/01/2006

If you think you don’t have to start paying hourly employees until they arrive at the official job site, think again. While it’s true that you don’t normally need to compensate employees for their home-to-work commute, you might have to pay for the travel time if you impose restrictions on that commute or require them to stop along the way …

Rein in Rogue ‘Early-Clockers’

09/01/2006

Q. We’ve repeatedly warned a part-time employee about clocking in earlier than he’s supposed to, sometimes more than an hour early. We know that we have to pay him for any hours worked, but what can we legally do to get him to work only the hours set for his position? —L.K., Missouri

Don’t dock exempt workers’ pay for lost equipment

08/01/2006

While you can set a policy that deducts from nonexempt employees’ wages if they damage or lose company equipment, don’t extend that policy to exempt employees or you’ll risk their exemption status …