First-Ever FLSA Break Requirement
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act now requires covered employers to grant breaktime to a worker for the purpose of expressing breastmilk for a nursing child. The employer must also provide a...
View ArticleBe On Guard For Looming FLSA Recordkeeping Changes
The U.S. Labor Department has now provided additional, disquieting insight into its "Plan, Prevent, Protect" program that we first reported on in our April 30 post. Part of DOL's Spring Regulatory...
View ArticleDOL Reverses Its Position On Donning And Doffing "Protective Equipment" In...
In a pronouncement applicable to unionized workplaces, this week the U.S. Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division issued an Administrator's Interpretation stating that unionized employers cannot...
View ArticleBeware the Meal Period Time-Bomb (Updated 08/10/10)
An increasing number of federal Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits and U.S. Labor Department investigations include claims based upon the employer's automatically deducting meal periods from non-exempt...
View ArticleAre Established Meal Periods Of Under 30 Minutes FLSA "Hours Worked"?
Our July 5 post prompted a question about whether an established meal period of less than 30 minutes must be considered worktime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The answer is, "Not...
View ArticleUpdate: Court Might Have Rejected Donning/Doffing "Administrator...
We previously posted about the U.S. Labor Department's Administrator Interpretation saying that unionized employers cannot exclude time spent donning and doffing certain protective equipment from...
View ArticleChicago Officer Sues Over After-Hours PDA Use
A police officer has sued the City of Chicago (on behalf of himself and others) seeking pay for time spent dealing with work-related phone calls, voice-mails, e-mails, text messages, and work orders...
View ArticleSupport Grows For Overhauling FLSA's Principles
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act turns 72 years old this year. Even though today's working world is radically different from that of 1938, the FLSA's principles remain largely unchanged and have...
View ArticleEmployer Beware: Employees Might Be Keeping Secret Records At DOL's...
Tucked away in a recent U.S. Labor Department e-newsletter was the announcement of a new "Work Hours Calendar." It is a time-tracking document that the Wage and Hour Division urges workers to maintain...
View ArticleUSDOL Facilitates More Secret Time Records
We previously reported on DOL's publication of a "Work Hours Calendar", a timesheet for employees to use to keep a private record of each workday’s arrival, start, stop, and departure times, along with...
View ArticleOverstaying Rest Breaks: Paid Time, Or Not?
Acme Corporation's longstanding policy is to give non-exempt employees two 10-minute rest breaks each workday. It treats these breaks as paid worktime. Management recently realized that, over the...
View ArticleOverstaying Rest Breaks: Round Two
Our earlier post about the U.S. Labor Department's position on unauthorized extensions of rest breaks has generated additional comments and questions. We have responded to one comment at length...
View ArticleHurricane Irene Likely To Spur Wage Questions
Affected employers will no doubt have a variety of wage-hour questions in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. The number and scope of the issues raised might well be practically endless. In this post,...
View ArticleQuick Quiz: "Down Time" On A Business Trip
Ellen is a non-exempt employee who works in Bigtown for The Acme Corporation. She is assigned to hand-out brochures at TAC's booth at a tradeshow at a hotel in Salestown on Monday. She will stay in...
View ArticleQuick Quiz Answer: "Down Time" On A Business Trip
The answer to our September 23 Quick Quiz is, "None of it".The relevant question under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act gets down to whether Ellen was "engaged to wait" (which is compensable...
View ArticleThe FLSA's "Remedial Training" Overtime Exception
Many employers find nowadays that at least some workers are unable to read, write, or do simple arithmetic beyond the lowest levels (if at all). Management wants to give the employees mandatory...
View Article"Flexible Work" Trend Still Necessitates Wage-Hour Compliance
A recent Time magazine item by Dan Schawbel of Millennial Branding discusses what he sees as a growing trend to abandon the traditional on-premises, 9-to-5 workday in favor of permitting employees to...
View ArticleQuick Quiz: "On Call" Time Under The FLSA
Alan is a Help Desk Associate for The Big Corporation. He is subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum-wage, overtime, and timekeeping requirements.Alan normally works from 8 a.m....
View ArticleQuick Quiz Answer: "On Call" Time Under The FLSA
The best answer to last week's Quick Quiz is, "No", it is not likely that Alan's time between calls would be found to be worktime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.The idle time during which...
View ArticleFLSA Questions In Wake Of Hurricane Isaac
Recurring wage-hour issues tend to arise during the recovery from a natural disaster. We posted the following item last year in connection with Hurricane Irene, and the points are equally relevant...
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