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FLSA

Guess the employer: DOL settles old OT suit

08/18/2016

The U.S. Department of Labor has reached a settlement in a decade-old overtime lawsuit—against itself. The department agreed Aug. 12 to pay $7 million to several thousand of its own employees.

As 9-to-5 dies, implications for overtime grow

08/15/2016
Today, most people don’t stop working when the clock strikes 5 p.m. What’s this going to mean for how you pay them?

Is comp time in lieu of overtime legal?

08/11/2016
Q. We have a team of nonexempt hourly employees who will soon be putting in significant overtime for an important project. May we compensate them for their overtime work with additional paid vacation time equal to the total accrued overtime?

Must we ever pay for long commuting time?

08/11/2016
Q. An employee’s workday begins at a site location, which could be an hour or more from his home. There is no other “corporate office” location. It is my understanding that travel time to work (wherever that may be) is not compensable. Is that always true? What if that first work location is a long way from home?

NLRB approves temp and regular employee organizing

08/11/2016
The National Labor Relations Board, in its Miller & Anderson, Inc. decision in July, announced a new standard that makes it much easier for unions to organize temporary employees working at another employer’s facility.

NYC contractor pays $431k to settle prevailing wage dispute

08/11/2016
Under the Davis-Bacon Act, employers are required to pay prevailing wages to employees who work on federal contracts. Sam Schwartz Engineering, a paving contractor on a federal project in Manhattan, found out the hard way that violating the prevailing wage rule is expensive.

Subway pact raises joint employer concerns

08/11/2016
A voluntary agreement signed on Aug. 1 between the Department of Labor and Subway—in which the sandwich chain pledges to force its franchisees to comply with wage-and-hour laws—is raising eyebrows among business advocates.

Wage suit against Friendly’s claims it’s a joint employer

08/09/2016
A ruling by a federal judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania will allow a class-action lawsuit to proceed against Friendly’s Ice Cream stores and its franchisees. According to the complaint, the restaurant chain requires servers to perform work off-the-clock during unpaid meal breaks and after clocking out following their shifts.

House bill would phase in new overtime salary threshold

08/06/2016
A group of fiscally conservative House Democrats has introduced legislation that would phase in Department of Labor rules raising the salary threshold for white-collar overtime to $47,467 per year.

New overtime rules may trigger more off-the-clock work: 5 ways to stop it

07/28/2016
With new rules set to take effect Dec. 1, some of your previously exempt employees will find themselves in unfamiliar territory: having to stop working when the clock strikes 5:00.