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FLSA

Overtime settlement puts dent in body shop’s profit

11/30/2012
Jacksonville-based Brynn Marr Body Shop has agreed to settle overtime complaints filed by 15 employees, following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

Exempt or nonexempt? Forget 50% rule for store managers who must multitask

11/30/2012
Good news for employers that list store managers as exempt even though they spend 50% or more of their time engaging in mundane tasks like stocking, running registers and assisting customers. Managers may be multitasking but that doesn’t mean they’re nonexempt.

Contractor or employee? 5 steps to keep you out of harm’s way

11/19/2012

How can you ensure that the IRS or state authorities won’t challenge the status of workers you call contractors? And how can you avoid being sued by a contractor who claims he’s an em­­ployee entitled to benefits? Follow these five steps.

Should we be paying overtime to employee who receives after-hours phone calls?

11/16/2012

Q. One of our office managers regularly receives after-hours calls from our landlord about building management issues. Are we required to pay her overtime compensation for the resulting hours she works over eight in one day or over 40 in one week?

DOL sues to gain access to Forever 21’s vendor records

11/16/2012
The U.S. Department of Labor’s new crackdown on alleged wage-and-hour abuses in the Southern California garment industry has resulted in its first legal action.

In Minneapolis, janitorial firm haunted by ‘ghost’ timecards

11/15/2012
Minneapolis janitors working for Diversified Maintenance Systems have received conditional class-action status in an FLSA lawsuit that alleges the company orchestrated a timecard switching scheme designed to avoid paying overtime.

Want to cut overtime pay? OK to alter workweek–as long as change is permanent

11/15/2012
Good news for cost-conscious employers: The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that an employer is free to change how it designates the workweek as long as it does so “permanently”—even if the sole reason is to reduce overtime pay.

Travel time: Must we begin paying employees when they leave their homes?

11/13/2012

Q. Some of our employees are required to drive our company vehicles from home to various work sites in our area. Are we required to pay them starting from the time they leave home?

DOL sues Houston emergency medical services companies

11/13/2012
The DOL has filed a lawsuit against three Houston-based ambulance companies—Pride EMS, Allyn Medical EMS and North Cypress EMS—and their common owners, seeking an injunction for alleged Fair Labor Standards Act violations.

Houston ice cream workers get double scoop of back OT

11/13/2012
An ice cream parlor franchisee will pay almost $31,000 to 12 employees following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation that found that the Marble Slab Creamery shops violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay overtime.