Private Sector Comp Time Bill Passes the House

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
05/05/2017
Comp-time is a common practice in the public sector and has been regularly used by public sector employees since the FLSA was amended in 1985.   It is available in the private sector too, but the requirements in place for an employer to do it right make it nearly impossible to use.  Which is why private sector employers who want to follow the law don’t often try to use it. An effort is taking place in Congress to amend the FLSA.  The Working...
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Federal Court Issues Nationwide Order Blocking New Overtime Rule

Employers received something to be thankful for late yesterday afternoon, when a federal judge in Texas issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the Obama Administration’s overtime rules that were scheduled to take effect on December 1. With the Trump Administration set to take office on January 20, 2017, there is a significant chance the new rules will never take effect. A brief FLSA refresher: employers are ordinarily required to pay...
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Baseball Stadium Workers Not Owed Overtime

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/14/2016
“Take me out to the ballgame Take me out with the crowd Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks I don’t care if I never get back…” Since 1908 (incidentally, the last year a certain Chicago team won the World Series), baseball fans have regularly sung this anthem as part of the stadium experience. What nobody could have anticipated at the time, however, was how to treat the employees who sell those peanuts, Cracker Jacks, and team-related...
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Wells Fargo: Together We'll Go Far... Into The Abyss of Audit Hell

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
09/28/2016
Unless you are a contestant who just returned from participating in the 33rd season of Survivor: Millenials v. Gen X (yes, I still watch this show -- Every. Single. Episode.), you have undoubtedly heard about the Wells Fargo credit card scandal.  Nearly 5300 employees were fired after it was uncovered that millions and millions of credit card accounts were fraudulently opened without customer permission because of intense corporate pressure to meet...
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Fourth Circuit Finds Fire Captains Eligible for Overtime

In a case with potentially far-reaching implications for fire departments in Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and West Virginia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that Fairfax County, Virginia fire captains are non-exempt employees entitled to overtime compensation. Morrison v. County of Fairfax, No. 14-2308 (June 21, 2016).  The Court reversed a grant of summary judgment in favor of the County and granted summary...
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Employer Cannot Avoid Overtime Obligations By Playing Ostrich

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
05/27/2016
If an employer knows, or has reason to know, that an employee is working overtime, that overtime must be paid.  In Craig v. Bridges Bros. Trucking LLC, No. 15-3396 (6th Cir. May 19, 2016), the Sixth Circuit concluded that a bookkeeper was able to pursue her Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime pay claim because she presented sufficient evidence her employer should have known she was working more than 40 hours in a work week. The Sixth Circuit...
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DOL Issues Final Rule Doubling the Salary Threshold for Overtime Exemption

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
05/18/2016
Later today, over two scoops of butter pecan, Vice President Joe Biden and United States Department of Labor Secretary Tom Perez will appear at an ice cream parlor in Ohio to announce that the DOL has issued a Final Rule that will allow more workers to qualify for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The long-awaited final rule doubles the salary threshold at which a worker may qualify as exempt from receiving overtime. ...
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Deal Me In: Appellate Court Rules That Casino Trainees May Be Employees

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
04/29/2016
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has ruled that casino trainees may be employees entitled to compensation under the FLSA when they are attending a pre-hire "training school" at a local community college.  Harbourt v. PPE Casino Resorts Md. , LLC.  The Court reversed a lower court decision dismissing the trainees' complaint, ruling that the facts plead in the complaint were sufficient to state a claim that the time spent in...
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Tyson Foods Loses FLSA Class Action, But May Be Able to Carve Up Damages Award

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
04/06/2016
Class-action lawsuits are typically viewed as high-risk, high-reward endeavors.  In its recent decision in Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, the Supreme Court pointed out both sides of this double-edged sword in the context of a unpaid overtime claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  577 U.S. ___ (2016). Federal Rule 23 permits parties to bring lawsuits as a class of people, rather than as individuals, if certain requirements are met. ...
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Check Casher Fails to Cash in on Overtime and Discrimination Claims

This past week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a pregnant employee who worked unauthorized overtime and was terminated two months after announcing her pregnancy could not prevail on claims brought under federal employment laws.   Fairchild v. All American Check Cashing, Inc., No. 15-60190 (1/27/16). Because the plaintiff could not show that her employer had knowledge of the overtime work, or that her employer’s...
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