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Four umpires who worked the 2011 U.S. Open Tennis Championship weren’t happy with the tournament’s outcome. It’s nothing personal against this year’s champions Samantha Stosur and Novak Djokovic, but rather the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA), who the umps say should have paid them overtime. The umpires say the Open regularly requires working more than 40 […]
Using independent contractors is a way to avoid paying unemployment, Social Security and Medicare taxes, overtime and benefits. However, if an employer is found liable of misclassifying an employee in tandem with committing wage and hour violations, DOL may fine the employer, and the employer may be assessed back wages and taxes. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) […]
Four thousand New York City Police Department (NYPD) sergeants are not exempt executives under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) because their primary duty is law enforcement, not management, a federal court has found. As a result, the court found the city liable to the sergeants for back overtime pay going back to 2001. The […]
Agricultural employers on the lookout for Fair Labor Standards Act’s child labor regulations for their industry can look no more — a new notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would revise those rules will finally be published in the Federal Register tomorrow. Agricultural employers have been awaiting these rules since final child labor rules for […]
Employers’ obligations to provide workers paid time off for organ and bone marrow donation under the state’s labor code were clarified under a bill California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) recently signed into law. Currently, any employee who uses up his or her sick leave may take a leave of absence with pay for as many […]
If employees in a brokerage company merely comply with client wishes by executing transactions for them, the brokerage must properly classify their status under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and pay them overtime, when they work more than 40 hours in a work week. If the brokerage wants to exempt employees from the law’s overtime […]
If you find out during the hiring process that an applicant blew the FLSA whistle on his or her former employer, you can probably pull the plug on that applicant, EVEN if you already sent him or her an offer letter (at least in the 4th Circuit). The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled […]
In yesterday’s Advisor, we covered two of the most common wage/hour violations; today, more violations plus an introduction to a surprisingly easy-to-use FLSA Audit Guide. Wage/hours violations like lunch break payments seem like small potatoes, but multiply by 250 days a year and a thousand employees and add penalties—you’ve got a big-dollar fine. Common Violation […]
One of the odder add-ons to the health care reform law requires employers to provide nursing mothers with unpaid “reasonable break time” each work day to express breast milk for up to one year after a child’s birth. Section 4207 of the law amends the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to require employers to provide […]
What are the most common violations found by DOLs Wage and Hour Division (WHD)? Time clocks, rounding, training time, and break time are among the top six. By law, employees must be paid for all “hours worked.” In general, “hours worked” includes all time an employee must be on duty, on the employer premises, or […]