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FLSA

Court rules firing based on lactation is sex discrimination under Title VII, PDA

06/26/2013
The EEOC has won a major case in its ongoing efforts to help lactating women who want to return to work. The 5th Circuit has accepted the commission’s interpretation that firing a woman who needs a place to express milk at work is both sex discrimination under Title VII and violates the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) because lactation is related to pregnancy.

Truckers put brakes on OT suit, accept settlement

06/26/2013
Gravel truck drivers at a Houston-area concrete company will split $173,863 in back overtime pay following a settlement with their employer, Porter Ready Mix. Instead of paying the 16 truckers an hourly rate, the company paid them by the trip.

Court allows class action in outside sales case

06/20/2013
A federal court has authorized a group of employees who claim they were misclassified as exempt outside sales employees to bring a collective action alleging unpaid wages.

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.