In Hale v. Dolgencorp, Inc., the Western District of Virginia denied the defendant’s motion for summary judgment on an FLSA claim based on the executive exemption to overtime pay. A copy of the opinion is here. More after the break.
Contributed by Eric A. Welter.Posts Tagged ‘FLSA/Overtime’
Western District Refuses To Dismiss FLSA Claim
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010Eastern District Rules on Attorneys’ Fees in FLSA Case
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010In Hanzlik v. Birach, Jr., et al., the Eastern District of Virginia granted the plaintiff’s attorneys’ fees petition, finding the amount of attorneys’ fees requested to be reasonable. The opinion can be found here. More after the break.
Contributed by Eric A. Welter.DOL Issues Administrator Interpretation On The Definition Of “Clothes”
Thursday, June 17th, 2010Rejecting the use of a dictionary in favor of ordinary usage, the Division recently posted a new Administrator Interpretation pertaining to Section 3(o) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 203(o), and the definition of “clothes.” The new Administrator Interpretation is designated as AI 2010-2. Please click on the following link to access this letter http://www.dol.gov/whd/opinion/adminIntrprtnFLSA.htm. More after the break.
Contributed by Eric A. Welter.Job Applicant Not “Employee” Under FLSA
Thursday, May 27th, 2010In Dellinger v. Science Applications International Corp., the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia held that a job applicant is not considered an “employee” under the FLSA, and thus cannot bring a retaliation claim under the statute. More after the break.
Contributed by Eric A. Welter.DOL Offers to Help Employees With Wage Complaints
Thursday, April 8th, 2010On April 1st, Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced the launch of a new campaign called “We Can Help” to alert workers of their rights under federal wage and hour laws. More after the break.
Contributed by Eric A. Welter.New DOL Administrator Interpretation Letters
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010The Department of Labor has announced that it will begin issuing “Administrator Interpretations” in lieu of providing case-specific responses to requests for opinion letters. The Interpretation letters will provide clarification of regulatory and statutory interpretation issues as determined by the Administrator. More after the break.
Contributed by Eric A. Welter.Tidbits
Monday, December 14th, 2009Our latest tidbits focus on wage and hour issues. More after the break.
Contributed by Eric A. Welter.DOL Flu Q&A’s
Friday, November 13th, 2009According to an email update, “The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor has posted information on common issues when employees get the flu and its affect on wages and hours worked under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). For more information, see Pandemic Flu and the Fair Labor Standards Act: Questions and Answers (PDF) and/or Pandemic Flu and the Family and Medical Leave Act: Questions and Answers (PDF).”
Contributed by Eric A. Welter.Minimum Wage Increase
Thursday, July 9th, 2009Effective July 24, 2009, the Federal minimum wage will increase to $7.25 from $6.55.
(Hat tip to Fair Labor Standards Act Law Blog. As they point out, the DOL has a chart of state minimum wages here.)
Contributed by Eric A. Welter.4th Circuit Decides FLSA Administrative Exemption Case
Monday, May 11th, 2009In Desmond v. PNGI Charles Town Gaming, L.L.C., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the district court and held that certain former employees were entitled to overtime compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) because they were not exempt employees within the administrative exemption of the FLSA. More after the break.
Arbitrator Finds That EEOC Willfully Violated FLSA Overtime Rules
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009In an ironic twist, an arbitrator has found that the EEOC willfully violated the FLSA by not paying employees overtime. The Washington Post has the story here. A copy of the arbitrator’s 83-page decision can be found here.
Contributed by Eric A. Welter.New DOL FLSA Opinion Letters
Monday, March 9th, 2009The U.S. Department of Labor has posted new FLSA opinion letters. In connection with this posting, the DOL issued the following disclaimer:
The Division has posted 36 Administrator opinion letters and four Non-Administrator opinion letters that were signed prior to January 21, 2009. The Administrator signed opinion letters are designated as FLSA2009-1 through FLSA2009-36. The Non-Administrator signed opinion letters are designated as FLSA2009-1NA through FLSA2009-4NA. Some of the posted opinion letters, as designated by asterisk, were not mailed before January 21. While the Wage and Hour Division is making these letters available to the requestor and to the public, the agency has decided to simultaneously withdraw these letters for further consideration. A final response to these opinion letter requests will be provided in the future.
In other words, the opinion letters marked with an asterisk will be “reconsidered” by the Obama administration. This disclaimer makes one wonder whether the DOL is about to embark on the course of the NLRB, which is notorious for reversing its own precedents every time a new administration comes to Washington.
More after the break.
FLSA Antics
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009New DOL Opinion Letters
Monday, January 19th, 2009The U.S. Department of Labor recently posted new wage and hour opinion letters. Ten of the recently posted letters are Administrator-signed letters. There is one non-Administrator signed letter. More information on the opinion letters after the break.
Restaurant Owners Arrested For Wage Violations
Monday, December 8th, 2008The New York Times reports here that two restaurant owners in Manhattan were arrested and charged with 400 counts relating to their ongoing wage and hour litigation with their employees (“151 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree with regard to wage violations, 45 counts of tampering with physical evidence and 46 counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree”). According to the article, “[a]ll are class E felonies, which carry a sentence of up to four years in prison.”
Readers may recall the same restaurant being the subject of a recent post on our blog on jury verdicts after a judge ordered them to pay $4.6 million for overtime violations and improper payroll deductions. Workplace Prof Blog has a recap post on the NYT story as well. The owners’ attorney accused the employee/plaintiffs of being “liars” in court at the arraignment.
A criminal indictment certainly raises the stakes for employers dealing with wage and hour disputes. Perhaps the magnitude of the case — and the federal court ruling in favor of the employees — led to the indictment, but it stands nonetheless as a warning to employers to pay attention to the law in this area.
