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FLSA

Court: If interns perform work, pay them!

06/19/2013
A New York case with a Hollywood connection is a timely reminder that, in almost all cases, employers must pay interns, no matter how menial their work is.

School’s out for summer: Complying with federal teen labor rules

06/14/2013
Teens are a great source of labor, especially during the summer. But the Fair Labor Standards Act sets strict limits on the hours they can work and the jobs they can perform—and those limits are different during school months and nonschool months.

­­­­­­­­L.I. diner owners face prison after serving up a side of fraud

06/07/2013
The owners of a Nassau County ­diner face up to four years in prison after a joint federal/state investigation found massive payroll and tax fraud at the restaurant. They pleaded guilty to several felony and misdemeanor counts alleging wage-and-hour violations and shady bookkeeping.

Court disallows salespeople’s bid for class-action status

06/07/2013
A federal judge in the Western Dis­­trict of New York has decertified a class of outside salespeople who alleged they were misclassified, citing two recent Supreme Court decisions: Comcast v. Behrend and Dukes v. Wal-Mart.

New York City area a hotbed for FLSA cases

06/07/2013
The Southern and Eastern Federal Districts of New York are among the top five districts nationwide for FLSA lawsuits.

How should we determine if employees should be paid for time in training?

06/03/2013
Q. We send our hourly employees to training that is related to work but is not required for employees to do their jobs. The training is on a weekend, is voluntary, and no work is performed. Are we required to pay employees for the hours they spend attending the training?

Employee filed incorrect pay complaint? It’s still protected

05/31/2013
Here’s a new twist on protected activity and retaliation: Apparently an employee can complain about wage-and-hour issues to the wrong agency—even one that has nothing to do with enforcing labor laws—and still gain protection from retaliation.

If exempt employee fields calls or emails on a sick day, is it still a sick day?

05/28/2013
Q. If a salaried manager is contacted via phone or email while out on a sick day and she responds, would that constitute work performed? Would that still be considered a sick day?

Should we track exempts’ sick time?

05/28/2013
Q. Our company gives eight hours of sick leave per month to nonexempt employees. We’ve been told that, under the FLSA, exempt employees are to be paid whenever they are sick. So our exempt employees have virtually an unlimited sick-leave balance. Is this a correct way to interpret the FLSA? Should we have some type of sick-leave accrual and tracking for our exempts?

Walmart pay saga continues with appeal to Pa. Supreme Court

05/28/2013

Retail giant Walmart has appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, asking it to overturn a $187.6 million class-action verdict issued two years ago. That decision followed a 32-day trial in 2006 that sent shock waves through the Pennsylvania employer community.