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The Employer Handbook Blog
Articles Posted in Overtime
Survey shows that the new proposed #overtime rules may be like whoa!
You know those proposed overtime rules from the Department of Labor. The ones where the salary-level for the white collar exemption will jump from $23,660 per year to over $50,ooo in 2016. Well, check this out. Continue reading
Will the new #overtime rules be good or bad? Here’s how to be heard.
A lot has been written over the past week few weeks since the Department of Labor announced its proposed change to the overtime rules — most of which has fewer typos and less snark than my drivel.
Continue reading
Just how nervous should companies be about FLSA lawsuits over employee smartphone use? (Hint: very)
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”
(I’m pretty sure that was from Ferris Bueller)
Yesterday, in the Wall Street Journal, I read Lauren Weber’s article “Can You Sue the Boss for Making You Answer Late-Night Email?” And the answer is yes, provided that you are a non-exempt employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the time you spend answering that email is more than a few minutes a week. It’s no different than when an employee checks company email at work. Work is work. Employees get paid to work. Continue reading
When employees cash paychecks stamped “full payment,” are their OT claims waived?
I’ve gotta hand it to the company in this recent federal appellate court opinion. The company almost — soooooo close — avoided several claims for unpaid overtime.
Let me set the stage for you. So, there I was wearing nothing but feathers and a coy smile. Back in 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor began investigating a complaint that a marketing company had misclassified some employees and failed to pay overtime. During the DOL investigation, the company sent the employees checks for back wages. Each check bore the following note in fine print:
“full payment from Actinlink [sic] or [sic] wages earned, including minimum wage and overtime, up to the date of the check.”
A bunch of employees deposited these checks. So, the marketing company claimed that, voila, those employees had agreed to waive their right to any additional back pay. Continue reading
Must you pay an employee for mandatory alcohol treatment?
More specifically, as posed in this recent federal court decision, “when an employer requires an employee to attend alcohol counseling and treatment sessions as a condition of keeping her job, must the employer compensate the employee for the time she spends in counseling and treatment?”
The three plaintiffs, NYPD police offers, identified three aspect of counseling that they claim they were required to undertake: (1) inpatient counseling at a residential treatment facility (with respect to one plaintiff); (2) outpatient counseling during regularly-scheduled work hours; and (3) outpatient counseling after regularly scheduled work hours. All three were paid their regular wage while in counseling. However, none of these employees received overtime.
More after the jump…
The hella-best post you’ll read today on yesterday’s Supreme Court employee-pay opinion
When you’re part of the bloggerati, just one half-step below the illuminati, well, let’s just say membership has its privileges. AMEX taupe card, rinkside seats to the local roller derby, earlybird specials, the world is your oyster.
And, at work, the staff sees me coming and runs the other way throngs to my office. Indeed, it’s gotten so bad, that we had to install security machines to control ingress and egress. While my firm can’t wait for me to jump ship loves the attention that my blog brings — remember you can vote for my blog in the ABA Blawg 100 — the folks who sign my mega-paycheck expressed concern that it would also have to compensate our non-exempt employees for the spent clearing security.
Thankfully, yesterday, the Supreme Court, in this opinion, unanimously ruled that the time these folks spend clearing security is not compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act. That’s because the time our staff spends waiting in line to clear security is neither indispensable nor integral to their principal activities in the office. They get paid to do legal work; not wait in line. And, absent the security, these folks could still do their jobs. And, even though my firm requires our awesome staff to clear security because of my blogging greatness and related fame and notoriety, the Portal-to-Portal Act exempts employers from FLSA liability for this this preliminary and postliminary time.
An app to stop employees like #AlexFromTarget from checking work email
Today’s post is brought to you by the letters S, E, and O.
With a tip of the hat to whomever posted a link to this story on Twitter, it got me reading about this app that companies can install on employees’ smartphones and tablets that would preclude them from accessing work-related email on those devices.
Why would you want to do that?
Another PA court concludes that “fluctuating workweek” is dead in PA
It’s been a rough year for RadioShack. One that, for me, came out of nowhere.
That Super Bowl commercial was freaking brilliant! (Second only to this one).
So, of to a great start in February, I thought things were looking up for RadioShack. But, then they announced they were closing 1,100 stores and one analyst later cut RadioShack’s stock price target to $0. ZERO!
GUEST POST: 4 Overtime Myths Debunked
Today we have a guest blogger at The Employer Handbook. It’s Kimberly Erskine.
Ordinarily, when I’m offered a wage-and-hour guest blog post, I just yawn — much like you do with the FLSA posts I do myself. But, this one, written from employee’s perspective, is a worthwhile read for both employees and employers alike.
(Want to guest blog on an employment-law topic at The Employer Handbook? Email me).
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