News Notes: Employer Ordered To Pay Big For Misclassifying Managers

An Orange County jury has ordered Edwards Theaters Circuit Inc., based in Newport Beach, to pay $276,000 in back overtime wages to four theater managers who claimed they were misclassified as exempt from overtime. The employees said they spent more than half their time performing non-exempt work, including cleaning up, taking tickets and selling popcorn, even though state and federal laws require exempt managers to, among other things, devote more than 50% of their time to management duties.