Wage and Hour Defense Blog

Several of the firm's labor lawyers in our New York office provided the following update on recent changes to New York wage and hour laws.

As we previously reported in our Summer 2009 New York State Employment Law Update, as of October 26, 2009, New York Labor Law Section 195(1) requires employers to notify all newly hired employees of the following: (i) rate of pay, (ii) regular paydays, and (iii) hourly rate and overtime pay rate (for all non-exempt employees). Employees must sign a statement acknowledging receipt of the written notice, and employers must keep the signed statement for ...

According to a federal judge in California, the answer is "Yes."  Judge Wilken of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a summary judgment ruling on October 16, 2009 holding that temporary employees of Kelly Services were owed overtime for time spent in interviews for job placement.  The rationale for the decision included findings that Kelly arranged the interviews, helped the applicants prepare for the interviews, and debriefed them afterwards.  The judge rejected Kelly's arguments that the interviews were purely voluntary, and for the benefit ...

A conflict is brewing in the federal courts over whether a defendant's offer to settle a collective action FLSA case for full relief can moot the case and effectively deprive the court of jurisdiction.  Plaintiff's lawyers view this tactic as a trick aimed at "picking off" class members to avoid a larger suit, while defendants argue that the courts should not be used to stir up litigation once a party's claim has been fully satisfied.  Put simply, why continue a lawsuit once the plaintiff has won everything he or she could collect?

In a recent decision out of North Carolina, a federal judge has ...

In a recent Client Alert prepared by Jeff Landes, the firm summarized several new laws passed by the New York legislature which will affect employers.  Among these laws was a very important change to the wage and hour laws, which will affect all companies with employees in New York.

Rate of Pay, Regular Pay Day and Overtime Rate Must Be in Writing and Acknowledged by New Hires

Labor Law Section 195(1) currently requires employers to provide newly hired employees with information regarding their rate of pay and the employer's regular pay days – such notice need not be written. On July 28 ...

A client this week asked us to provide an opinion letter regarding the exempt status of certain supervisors, and some tips on how to avoid lawsuits regarding mis-classification.  Although some of the advice was specific to the client's business, much of the advice is applicable to a wide variety of industries.  An excerpt from the memo is below.

• Carefully craft job descriptions to emphasize exempt duties over non-exempt duties – require employees to acknowledge their job descriptions in writing.
• List the two or more employees supervised by an exempt manager in the job ...

Furloughs are a hot topic in today's economy.  I previously reported on the potential usefulness of furloughs, as well as the risk that reducing an employee's salary as part of a furlough program could run afoul of the "salary basis" test and jeopardize the employee's exempt status. 

Recognizing the need for legal guidance on this issue, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division recently issued a user-friendly "Frequently Asked Questions" fact sheet on furloughs. (Special thanks to my EBG colleague Elissa Silverman for bringing this to my attention.)

I don't ...

On July 27, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a corporation's managers can be held personally liable under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") for wages that the corporation failed to pay to employees prior to the employer's filing for bankruptcy. This opinion serves as a cautionary reminder of the risks managers potentially face when a corporation files for bankruptcy and has failed to pay its employees for all wages earned prior to the filing.

In Boucher v. Shaw, ---- F. 3d ----, 2009 WL 2217517 (9th Cir. 2009), former ...

After the recent seventy cent increase in minimum wage to $7.25, there were some interesting statements being made by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.  In a press conference on July 24, Secretary Solis announced that the increase will help 3 million to 5 million workers and is "projected to generate $5.5 billion in consumer spending over the next year."  Of course, this statement implies that the money, if kept by businesses, would have just sat in a vault in the boss' office, and not have been spent on additional equipment, more employees, or expanding the business.

Under Solis, employers ...

I am pleased to report that the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed the district court's summary judgment in favor of our client, a bus company, in a case involving the motor carrier exemption.  The case is Walters v. American Coach Lines of Miami, Inc. (11th Cir., July 23, 2009).

 I first reported on this case and discussed the basics of the motor carrier exemption in a September 2008 post on the Florida Employment Law Blog.  My EBG colleague, Brian Molinari, recently summarized the Walters decision in a post on the Prima Facie Law Blog.

A quick ...

A number of recent lawsuits illustrate how changing workplace technology can form the basis for creative FLSA lawsuits.  A wave of claims have been brought against Fortune 500 companies alleging that non-exempt employees have not been paid for "off the clock "duties such as logging into computer systems and responding to email and text messages after work hours and on weekends.

Putting aside the merits of these cases, this trend illustrates the legal implications of introducing technology into the workplace, especially when used by non exempt employees to work remotely.  ...