FLSA

DOL busts Bernie’s Burger Bus

06/27/2018

The companies that own the Bernie’s Burger Bus restaurant chain in Houston will have to pay $62,754 after investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division discovered a scheme to divide workers’ hours between two limited liability corporations to deprive them of overtime pay.

Refuse a DOL subpoena, go straight to jail

06/26/2018

The owner of GT Drywall in Chino Hills, California, spent some time behind bars after a federal judge tired of his delaying tactics in an ongoing wage-and-hour investigation.

No work permit? Overtime pay still required

06/26/2018

Undocumented status and the possibility the workers may be subject to deportation does not absolve you of your obligation to pay the minimum wage and overtime under California’s wage-and-hour laws. You must also grant mandated meal and rest breaks.

Unofficial off-the-clock rule spells class-action trouble

06/21/2018

What happens if there is an unwritten rule among supervisors that workers must come in early to set up and prepare for work before they’re allowed to log into the time-keeping system? That’s a recipe for a class-action FLSA lawsuit.

If Congress flips, expect FLSA OT threshold rewrite effort to stall

06/19/2018

Democratic wins in November’s midterm elections could influence the HR agenda on Capitol Hill, according to Michael Aitken, vice president of government affairs at the Society for Human Resource Management.

Employment law update: FMLA & ADA, FLSA & higher education

06/14/2018

Here are updates on the interaction between the FMLA and the ADA, and on the U. S. Department of Labor’s new guidance on the FLSA and higher educational institutions.

Department of Labor opinion letters are back

06/14/2018

As part of fulfilling its mission to enforce the Fair Labor Standards Act, the FMLA and other laws—and in recognition of their complexity—the DOL allows employers to ask specific questions about how to comply.

Battery maker charged with pay violations

06/07/2018

Eastern Penn Manufacturing Co. in Lyon Station, Pa., faces a lawsuit after investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found the company failed to pay workers for the time they spent putting on and taking off protective clothing and time spent showering before they checked out.

Court knocks down multi-state wage-and-hour class action

05/16/2018

A federal court has refused to certify a wage-and-hour class-action lawsuit. The crux of the case: Minnesota’s unique rules requiring employees to be paid for breaks of less than 20 minutes.

DOL: Expect new overtime pay rule in 2019

05/14/2018

The U.S. Department of Labor plans to wait until 2019 to release new proposed overtime rules for white-collar employees. The announcement, buried deep inside the Trump administration’s spring regulatory agenda document, merely states that the DOL will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking on “01/00/2019″—in other words, sometime next year.