Our colleague Nathaniel M. Glasser, a Member of the Firm at Epstein Becker Green, has a post on the Hospitality Labor and Employment Law Blog that will be of interest to many of our readers: “Fourth Circuit Decision Highlights Need for Employers to Assess Whether Training Time Should Be Compensated."
Whether time spent in training is compensable time under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) is an issue that the courts have addressed in a variety of contexts. A new Fourth Circuit decision – Harbourt v. PPE Casino Resorts Maryland, LLC – addressed that issue in the ...
Brian W. Steinbach, attorney at Epstein Becker Green, has a post on the Hospitality Labor and Employment Law Blog that will be of interest to many of our readers: “Southern District of New York’s Rejection of FLSA Settlement Highlights Need to Settle on Terms That Will Pass Judicial Muster.”
Following is an excerpt:
In rejecting the terms of a collective action settlement in Yun v. Ippudo USA Holdings, No. 14-CV-8706 (S.D.N.Y. March 24, 2016) the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has confirmed the significance of last year’s Second Circuit ...
Michael Kun, co-editor of this blog, has a post on the Hospitality Labor and Employment Law Blog that will be of interest to many of our readers: "Ninth Circuit Approves DOL Rule Prohibiting 'Tip Pooling' for Kitchen Employees Even Where No 'Tip Credit' Is Taken."
Following is an excerpt:
The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) permits employers to use “tip credits” to satisfy minimum wage obligations to tipped employees. Some employers use those “tip credits” to satisfy the minimum wage obligations; some do not. (And in some states, like California, they cannot do so ...
The top story on Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program – is the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division's new interpretation of joint employment.
The federal Wage and Hour Division issued an Administrator’s Interpretation with new guidelines for joint employers under the FLSA and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. The Division makes it clear that it believes employers are regularly part of joint employment relationships with their vendors and business partners. If an employee files a claim or lawsuit and a ...
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently joined the chorus of Circuits adopting the pro-employer “predominant benefit test” when weighing the compensability of meal periods under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). As a result, the Ninth Circuit is the lone Circuit to apply a different standard, opting to follow the U.S. Department of Labor regulations providing that an “employee must be completely relieved from duty” in order for a meal period to be deemed bona fide and thus not compensable.
In Babcock v. Butler County, a putative class action lawsuit, employees ...
The top story on Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program – is the record high for Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits in 2015.
The number of federal wage-and-hour suits rose almost 8% this year. There are many reasons for the increase, including more worker-friendly rules and increased publicity around minimum wage and overtime issues. Some point to the difficulties of applying an outdated law to our modern day economy.
Jeff Ruzal, co-editor of this blog, is interviewed. Click below to view the episode.
Featured in Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program: Beauty school students are not entitled to wages - that was the conclusion reached by federal judges in two different cases where the students challenged the practice of serving salon customers in a clinical setting.
In both cases, the Court held that the students had not proven that the educational benefit they received was outweighed by the unpaid work they did, and they therefore did not qualify for minimum wages and overtime. Unpaid internships are under a lot of scrutiny right now by the ...
Following recent precedent by the Second and Eleventh Circuits, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed the claims of cosmetology and haircutting students who claimed they acted primarily as workers rather than students.
In Benjamin v. B&H Education, Inc., the plaintiffs sought to represent a putative class of students seeking wages from their schools under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") and the wage hour laws of California and Nevada.
The District Court held that the putative class representatives had not established that ...
In Naylor v. Securiguard, Inc., the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that an employer may be required to compensate employees for meal breaks if the employees are required to spend a significant portion of that period traveling to a required break area.
Facts
Securiguard employees guarded several gates to a Naval air station. During their shifts, the guards received two scheduled thirty-minute meal breaks. The guards expressed a desire to eat at their posts, but Securiguard prohibited them from doing so (out of concern that the customer would think they were shirking their ...
On September 11, 2015 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit announced that it joined the Second Circuit in rejecting the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) rigid six part test for determining whether unpaid interns were employees and should have been paid minimum wages and overtime for their services. Schumann and Abraham et al v Collier Anesthesia, P.A., Wolford College, LLC, Thomas Cook and Lynda Waterhouse, No. 14-13169, 2015 BL 294459 (11th Cir. Sept. 11, 2015), citing to Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc., Nos. 13-4478-cv, 13-4481-cv (2d Cir. July 2 ...
On August 7, 2015 the Second Circuit held that parties cannot enter into private settlements of Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA” or the “Act”) claims without the approval of either the district court or the Department of Labor. Cheeks v. Freeport Pancake House, Inc., No. 14-299 (2nd Cir. 2015).
Although other circuits are split on the issue of whether pre-suit agreements to settle FLSA claims are enforceable, this is the first appellate decision to address the issue of whether judicial approval is required to terminate an FLSA lawsuit once it has been filed. See Lynn's Food ...
More than a year after its efforts were first announced, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has finally announced its proposed new rule pertaining to overtime. And that rule, if implemented, will result in a great many “white collar” employees previously treated as exempt becoming eligible for overtime pay for work performed beyond 40 hours in a workweek – or receiving salary increases in order that their exempt status will continue.
In 2014, President Obama directed the DOL to enhance the “white collar” exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA” ...
In Resch v. Krapf’s Coaches, Inc., the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that drivers who “rarely or never crossed state lines” were nevertheless covered by the motor carrier exemption to the FLSA because they worked in safety-affecting jobs and reasonably could have been expected to drive interstate routes.
The FLSA’s motor carrier exemption creates an overtime exemption for employees who are covered by the Secretary of Transportation’s authority to regulate the safe operation of motor vehicles in interstate or foreign commerce. To fall under the Secretary of ...
In a case that has strategic implications for employers’ use of arbitration agreements in response to collective claims brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the Eighth Circuit has held that former servers at an Arkansas pizzeria chain lack standing to challenge the pizzeria’s enforcement of an arbitration agreement that bars current employees from joining the FLSA collective action. Conners v. Gusano’s Chi. Style Pizzeria, No. 14-1829 (8th Cir. Mar. 9, 2015).
In Conners, the plaintiff filed a proposed collective action lawsuit on behalf of herself and ...
The United States Supreme Court has upheld an Administrator’s Opinion issued by the United States Department of Labor stating that “typical” mortgage-loan officers are not covered by the Administrative exemption to the FLSA’s overtime requirements.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Perez v. Mortg. Bankers Ass'n reversed a Circuit Court decision vacating the Opinion for failure to comply with the procedural requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). Specifically, the Supreme Court ruled that the APA expressly exempts the Department of Labor ...
In Jones-Turner v. Yellow Enterprise Systems, LLC, the Sixth Circuit recently upheld summary judgment in favor of an ambulance company in a collective action filed by three EMTs, finding that the plaintiffs’ meal and rest breaks were not compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and Kentucky law. The Court analyzed whether the ambulance company’s policy of having “on-call” lunch periods required EMTs to be compensated for that time.
According to the “on-call” lunch period policy, EMTs in the field were not allotted a specific time period for lunch ...
In Ruffin v. MotorCity Casino, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals considered whether casino security guards were entitled to be paid for meal periods during which they were required to remain on casino property, monitor two-way radios and respond to emergencies if called to do so.
The District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan had granted summary judgment to the employer based on the conclusion that no reasonable jury could have found the meal periods to be compensable work time.
In affirming the ruling of the District Court, the Sixth Circuit relied on its earlier decision in ...
Several years ago, I received a kind note around the holidays from my opposing counsel in a wage-hour class action, thanking me and my firm for being their “partners” in addressing employment issues.
Maybe the word he used wasn’t “partners,” but it was something close to it.
At first, I must admit that I thought he was joking.
Then I realized that this attorney, for whom I have great respect, got it.
He got that employers are not looking to violate employment laws, and that the attorneys who represent them are not trying to help them violate the laws.
He got that the opposite is true ...
In order to prevent employee theft, some employers require their employees to undergo security screenings before leaving the employers’ facilities. That is particularly so with employers involved in manufacturing and retail sales, who must be concerned with valuable merchandise being removed in bags, purses or jacket pockets.
Often in the context of high-stakes class actions and collective actions, parties have litigated whether time spent undergoing a security screening must be compensated under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). On December 9, 2014, a unanimous ...
Our colleague Jeffrey H. Ruzal recently wrote an article entitled “Offset as Defense to FLSA Suit May Mitigate Unpaid Wage Claims,” which appears in the June 2014 issue of Hospitality Law.
Following is an excerpt:
A federal district court in Michigan recently preserved for trial the question of whether a defendant employer may mitigate its back wage liability by offsetting paid break time, which would effectively extinguish plaintiff employees’ claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
In Hayes, et al., v. Greektown Casino, LLC, et al., No. 12-1552 (E.D. Mich. 03/31/14), a ...
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to resolve a split among the federal circuits regarding whether time spent in security screenings is compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), as amended in 1947 by the Portal-to-Portal Act. The outcome of the case, Integrity Staffing Solutions v. Busk, could have a significant economic impact on employers who require employees to submit to security searches before or after they begin their workday if employers are required to pay for the time employees spend doing so.
The case arises from claims filed by two former ...
On December 19, 2013, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied the defendant’s motion for discovery regarding the plaintiffs’ immigration status in Colon v. Major Perry St., Inc., No. 1:12-cv 03788 (S.D.N.Y. 2013).
In Colon, several workers, some of whom are undocumented aliens, sued under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) to recover minimum and overtime wages that the employer refused to pay. The defendant argued that under the Second Circuit’s decision in Palma v. NLRB, 723 F.3d 176 (2nd Cir. 2013), the plaintiffs ...
Our colleagues Kara Maciel and Jordan Schwartz, both of Epstein Becker Green, recently cowrote an article for PLC titled "Tipped Employees Under the FLSA."
Following is an excerpt:
Wage and hour lawsuits certainly are not new phenomena, but in recent years, service industry employees have increasingly made claims regarding tips and service charges. In particular, employers in states such as Massachusetts, New York and California have seen a surge in class actions involving compulsory tip pools and distributions of service charges to employees. Commonly targeted employers ...
On September 17, 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a final rule extending the federal minimum wage and overtime pay protection under the Fair Labor Standards Act (the “FLSA”) to many direct care or domestic service workers, including home health aides, personal care aides and nursing assistants. The rule will take effect on January 1, 2015.
For almost 40 years, an exemption from the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the FLSA has applied to domestic service workers employed to provide “companionship services” for an ...
By: Kara Maciel and Jordan Schwartz
As discussed in prior blogs, due to confusion surrounding FLSA tip pool requirements, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) Wage and Hour Division enacted a strict rule in 2011 related to proper tip pooling and service charge practices. This rule was met with swift legal challenges, and earlier this week the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon concluded that the DOL had exceeded its authority when implementing its final rule. See Oregon Rest. and Lodging Assn. v. Solis, No. 3:12-cv-01261 (D. Or. June 7, 2013).
Inconsistent ...
By Michael Kun
“Hybrid” wage-hour class actions are by no means a new concept.
In a “hybrid” class action, the named plaintiff files suit seeking to represent classes under both the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and state wage-hour laws. As the potential recovery and limitations periods for these claims are often very different, so, too, are the mechanisms used for each.
In FLSA claims, where classes can be “conditionally certified” if a plaintiff satisfies a relatively low burden of establishing that class members are “similarly situated” – a ...
Wage-hour lawsuits filed under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) represent one of the fastest growing and most problematic areas of litigation facing employers today, especially when such cases are brought as collective actions. A recent Supreme Court case based in class action analysis provides a potentially-useful analog for employers to stave off such collective actions.
Class action criteria are set forth in Fed. R. Civ. P. 23, and they allow for one or more individual named plaintiffs to sue on behalf of a large – sometimes very large – group of ...
From restaurants in New York to childcare providers in Arkansas to the garment industry in Southern California, Department of Labor investigators continue to uncover FLSA violations by conducting unannounced workplace inspections.
Accordingly, in January, we released our Wage and Hour Division Investigation Checklist for employers and have received terrific feedback with additional questions. Following up on your questions, we will be regularly posting FAQs as a regular feature of our Wage & Hour Defense Blog.
We previously blogged about how to prepare ...
The prohibition against private settlements of FLSA claims was scrutinized again last week, when U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York held that parties could voluntarily dismiss an FLSA lawsuit without obtaining approval of the settlement agreement from the court. Picerni v. Bilingual SEIT & Preschool Inc.
Courts in FLSA cases have historically expressed the concern that individual waivers of FLSA rights would enable employers to use their superior bargaining power to extract individual waivers from their employees and “thwart ...
By Douglas Weiner and Kara Maciel
“There’s a new sheriff in town.” With those words in 2009, Secretary Hilda Solis initiated a policy at the Department of Labor that emphasized increased investigations and prosecutions of violators rather than the prior administration’s emphasis on providing compliance assistance.
Her departure – announced yesterday – is unlikely, however, to have much effect on the Department’s current aggressive enforcement policy, as the top enforcement officer of the Department remains Solicitor of Labor M. Patricia Smith. Solicitor ...
In recent years employees have asserted claims for time allegedly worked away from their normal worksites, on their Blackberries, iPhones or personal home computers. Until now, employers have been faced with the nearly impossible task of proving that their employees did not perform the alleged work. The US Department of Labor and plaintiffs’ attorneys have taken advantage of the well-established obligation of employers to make and maintain accurate records of the hours worked by their non-exempt employees, and to pay for all work “suffered or ...
By Michael Kun and Aaron Olsen
Agreeing with the recent federal district court opinion in our case Alonzo v. MAXIMUS, Inc., 832 F.Supp.2d 1122, 1126 (2011), the California Court of Appeals has confirmed in a case against See’s Candy that California employers may round employees’ time entries so long as the employer’s rounding policy does not consistently result in a failure to pay employees for time worked.
In Alonzo, a federal district court granted summary judgment in favor of our client MAXIMUS, Inc. on the plaintiffs’ time rounding claims. The Alonzo Court explained that ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently confirmed that the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) does not prohibit an employer from modifying its workweek in order to avoid overtime costs. The Court’s ruling in Redline Energy confirms that employers are permitted to modify their workweeks as long as the change is intended to be permanent. Employers are not required to set forth a legitimate business reason for making the change and are permitted to do so solely for the purpose of reducing their overtime costs. The only requirement on ...
By: Kara M. Maciel
Hurricane Sandy is approaching this weekend, so employers along the East Coast should refresh themselves on the wage and hour issues arising from the possibility of missed work days in the wake of the storm.
A few brief points that all employers should be mindful of under the FLSA:
- A non-exempt employee generally does not have to be paid for weather-related absences. An employer may allow (or require) non-exempt employees to use vacation or personal leave days for such absences. But, if the employer has a collective bargaining agreement or handbook policies, the ...
On September 19, 2012, several members of EBG’s Wage and Hour practice group will be presenting a briefing and webinar on FLSA compliance. In 2012, a record number of federal wage and hour lawsuits were filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), demonstrating that there is no end in sight to the number of class and collective actions filed against employers. Claims continue to be filed, raising issues of misclassification of employees, alleged uncompensated "work" performed off the clock, and miscalculation of overtime pay for non-exempt workers.
In this interactive ...
By: Greta Ravitsky and Jordan Schwartz
On July 24, 2012, the Fifth Circuit became the first federal appellate court in over thirty years to enforce a private settlement of a wage and hour dispute arising under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) in Martin v. Spring Break ’83 Productions LLC.
For decades, federal courts have consistently held that FLSA wage and hour disputes may not be settled privately without approval from either the Department of Labor (“DOL”) or a federal district court. This apparently “settled” area of law was based exclusively on the Eleventh ...
By: Kara M. Maciel
In April of 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) changed its rule defining the general characteristics of tips in an attempt to overrule the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Cumbie v. Woody Woo, Inc. ruling that the FLSA does not impose any restrictions on the kinds of employees who may participate in a valid tip pool where the employer does not claim the “tip credit.”
DOL’s Recent Position on Tip Pool Participation
The DOL’s amended rule provides that tips are the property of the employees, and may not be used by the employer ...
By Amy Traub and Desiree Busching
Just as designers must be cognizant of copycat fashions, employers must be cognizant of copycat lawsuits. In February of this year, Xuedan “Diana” Wang filed a lawsuit against her former employer, Hearst Corporation, on behalf of herself and others similarly situated, alleging that the company violated federal and state wage and hour laws by failing to pay minimum wage and overtime to interns working for Harper’s Bazaar. Wang had worked for Harper’s Bazaar during the fall of 2011. Her lawsuit was filed in February 2012, only five months ...
By Amy Traub, Michael Kun, and Anna Kolontyrsky
As employers know, not only are FLSA collective actions more prevalent than ever, but they can be costly to defend or resolve. In an attempt to bring quick closure to such cases, somedefendants have attempted to settle such claims with the individual plaintiff alone through a Rule 68 offer of judgment before a class has been conditionally certified.
This strategy has come under attack. And the United States Supreme Court will now determine whether it is permissible.
The United States Supreme Court has elected to review a Third Circuit ...
By: Michael Thompson
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSRs) are “outside salesmen” who are not entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The high court’s ruling was predicated on its finding that, in the pharmaceutical industry’s “unique regulatory environment,” the commitments obtained by PSRs equate to traditional sales. Furthermore, the Supreme Court rebuked the Department of Labor (DOL) for “unfairly surprising” the industry by filing amicus briefs arguing that PSRs were ...
The Seventh Circuit has ruled that pharmaceutical sales representatives are covered by the Administrative exemption to the FLSA because “the core function of the representatives’ duties, the physician office visits,” requires significant discretion and independent judgment. While other courts have applied a case specific analysis to determine the applicability of the Administrative exemption in this context, the Seventh Circuit’s analysis appears to be applicable to virtually all sales representatives in the pharmaceutical ...
By Douglas Weiner and Meg Thering
In one of the many “wrinkles” in Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) litigation, settlements of wage and hour disputes between an employer and its employees are only enforceable if supervised by the U.S. Department of Labor or approved by a court. Courts will approve settlements if they are “fair”; however, as demonstrated in a recent decision arising out of New Jersey - Brumley v. Camin Cargo Control - courts may need to be reminded that employers also have rights and legitimate interests. The Brumley Court took what was a bargained-for ...
By: Kara M. Maciel and Casey Cosentino
We were recently asked by a client to provide guidance on the wage and hour issues associated with company-provided on-line training programs for non-exempt employees. Questions were raised as to when the training is "voluntary" and whether the time must be compensated if the training is completed at home using a personal computer. The answer stems from federal wage and hour law, which provides that such time is likely compensable for non-exempt employees.
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to ...
By Dean Silverberg, Evan Spelfogel, Peter Panken, Douglas Weiner, and Donald Krueger
Reversing its prior stance, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) proposes to extend the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) to domestic workers who provide in-home care services to the elderly and infirm. See Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to Amend the Companionship and Live-In Worker Regulations. In 1974, when domestic service workers were first included in FLSA coverage, the DOL published regulations that provided an exemption for such ...
By Peter M. Panken, Michael S. Kun, Douglas Weiner, and Larissa Lalor-Rosado
Misclassification of employees as exempt from overtime compensation has become a cottage industry for plaintiff’s lawyers and for the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) in the Obama years. One of the most difficult issues is whether employees meet the so-called administrative exemption to the Wage Hour laws. In Hines v. State Room, the United States Circuit Court in New England offered some clarity and help to beleaguered employers holding that former banquet sales managers were exempt ...
By: Michael Thompson
In Ibanez v. Abbott Laboratories, Inc., the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued the latest ruling in the ongoing dispute over whether pharmaceutical sales representatives are exempt from the overtime requirements of the FLSA.
The plaintiff in Ibanez was a former sales representative for Abbott. Among other things, the plaintiff helped create “business plans which tracked doctors by market share and potential.” The plaintiff also developed “game plan[s] or strateg[ies] for individual calls with physicians.” Thus, the District Court ruled ...
By David Garland and Douglas Weiner
In February 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit gave a resounding victory to employers in the pharmaceutical industry by finding that pharmaceutical sales representatives are covered by the outside sales exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Christopher v. SmithKline Beecham, No. 10-15257 (9th Cir. Feb. 14, 2011). Plaintiffs, and the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) in an amicus brief, had argued the exemption did not apply because sales reps are prohibited from making the final sale. Prescription ...
By Douglas Weiner and Meg Thering
On October 20, 2011, the Computer Professionals Update Act (“the CPU Act”) – one of the first potential pieces of good news for employers this year – was introduced in the U.S. Senate. If passed, the CPU act would expand the computer employee exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). S. 1747.
Unlike much of the other legislation affecting employers that has been proposed or passed this year, the CPU Act would make business easier for employers and decrease the risk of employee misclassification lawsuits. If the proposed ...
For several years, employers’ counsel have moved to block the combining of state wage and overtime claims with federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) claims, arguing that Rule 23 opt-out class actions were inherently inconsistent with FLSA collective opt-in actions. For support, they cited to the decision of the Third Circuit in De Asencio vs. Tyson Foods, Inc., 342 F. 3d 301 (3rd Cir. 2003) reversing a district court’s exercise of supplemental jurisdiction because of the inordinate size of the state-law class, the different terms of proof ...
By Michael Kun, Regina Musolino and Aaron Olsen
Since the Supreme Court’s historic ruling in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, attorneys have debated the scope and impact of the decision. Not surprisingly, plaintiffs’ counsel have argued that the decision was limited to its facts, or to discrimination cases, or to cases involving nationwide claims. And they have argued that Wal-Mart has no application whatsoever to wage-hour class actions and collective actions. In only a few words, the Supreme Court may have answered some of these questions.
Earlier this month, the United ...
By Amy Traub and Christina Fletcher
Once a settlement has been reached in an FLSA collective action, the defendant-employer typically wants that settlement to go into effect and end the case as soon as possible, so that the company can get past the myriad of distractions brought by the suit. However, as litigants increasingly are finding, the parties’ agreement to settle an FLSA collective action is nowhere near the end of the road, or the end of the case. There is a “judicial prohibition” against the unsupervised waiver or settlement of claims brought under the ...
As Hurricane Irene is moving up the East Coast and threatening states from North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts, employers should refresh themselves on the wage and hour issues arising from the possibility of missed work days in the wake of the storm.
A few brief points that all employers should be mindful of under the FLSA:
- A non-exempt employee generally does not have to be paid for weather-related absences. An employer may allow (or require) non-exempt employees to use vacation or personal leave days for such absences. But, if ...
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 ...
The following is a reprint of a client alert authored by EBG attorneys Doug Weiner and Frank Morris, Jr. It should be of interest to all Florida employers that are considering a reduction in force.
For many employers, these are desperate economic times. Every entity facing diminished revenue must consider cost cuts to survive. As news reports show, reductions in force (RIFs) are being used daily to achieve cost savings, and for some employers they may be the best solution. In some cases, however, the savings are not immediate as a result of statutorily required or voluntary notice ...
Last month I reported that United States District Judge Kenneth L. Ryskamp had sanctioned the Shavitz Law Group, one of the leading plaintiff-side wage-hour firms in Florida, for soliciting plaintiffs in violation of Florida Bar Rules. The case was Hamm v. TBC Corp. and Tire Kingdom, Inc., Case No. 07-80829-CIV-RYSKAMP/VITUNAC.
The Shavitz firm recently struck back, filing a motion to disqualify or recuse Judge Ryskamp from presiding over a different case, a Fair Labor Standards Act collective action against Abercrombie & Fitch. The motion quoted Judge Ryskamp's ...
Blog Editors
Recent Updates
- The U.S. Department of Labor’s Final Rule Increasing the Salary Threshold for EAP Exemptions Took Effect, Except for the State of Texas as an Employer
- Plaintiffs in California Putative Class Action Lose Numerous Challenges to Enforcing Arbitration, Barring Unclean Hands
- California Governor’s PAGA Deal: What Employers Need to Know - Employment Law This Week
- Minimum Wage Increases (and Other Changes) Are Coming on July 1, 2024
- New Jersey Wage Theft Act Does Not Apply Retroactively, Per the State Supreme Court