Author: Buckley Beal

Last week, a California judge certified a class of nearly 3,000 Oracle employees who allege they were misclassified as exempt under California’s Labor Code – similar to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) – by denying overtime pay and failing to provide off-duty meal periods. All employees who are not exempt must be paid at a rate of one and one half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in any workweek. Whether an employee is “exempt” is one of the…

n a recent decision, the Second Circuit determined that Novartis Pharmaceutical Corps representatives were not covered by the “outside sales” exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act and hence, were entitled to overtime pay. Pursuant to the FLSA, employees who are not exempt must be paid at a rate of one and one half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in any workweek. One of the biggest issues to arise under the FLSA is whether the work you do is considered…

Many college students look forward to the summer as an opportunity to gain experience in the work place before getting their first “real job.” One way to do this is to be hired as an unpaid intern at a company. Interns agree to forego pay for in exchange for hands-on experience. However, recent reports have detailed employers taking advantage of interns as a source of free labor. In order to provide guidance regarding this growing problem, the Department of Labor has just issued a fact sheet detailing what constitutes an…

A recent opinion issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) determined that mortgage loan officers do not qualify as bona fide administrative employees exempt under section 13(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 213(a)(1). As a result, they are entitled to receive overtime pay, typically one and one half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 hours in any workweek. The DOL issued its opinion after reviewing whether a mortgage loan officer was “exempt” based on the 3-part test set forth…

Just because you receive commissions doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t qualify for overtime. The FLSA has carved out an exemption to overtime pay for people who receive commissions as a part of their salaries, but it is a very narrow exception. It is possible that people working in malls all across Georgia should be talking to an employment attorney about this issue. The exemption, Section 7(i), applies to retail and service establishments, which are defined as “establishments, 75% of whose annual dollar volume of sales of goods or services…

Many companies in the Atlanta area now require that their employees take online training classes, or classes at outside facilities. Should the time spent taking this training be compensated? The FLSA covers this issue in general, and a recent DOL opinion letter shines an interesting light on some facts that may come up while employees are taking classes on their computers. Generally, the FLSA says about online training that it is not compensable if the following four criteria are met: 1. Attendance is outside of the employee’s regular working hours;…

One of the requirements in the FLSA to prove that an employee is under salary and not an hourly employee for the purposes of paying overtime is the concept of a “constant weekly wage,” where the employee gets a set salary for set hours worked per week. Any variance on that theme can result in the employee collecting overtime. But there are some jobs that just don’t fit that description. There is an exception to that “constant wage” rule, but it is very narrow and very specific and needs to…

Atlanta is replete with people who work in the field of home health care. Home health care workers have a special set of regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. For instance, a home health care worker may or may not be entitled to overtime pay, depending on the circumstances of employment. First, the definition. A home health care worker is someone who provides home health care services for individuals who (because of age or infirmity) are unable to care for themselves. They may be employed by the household itself,…

Most salaried employees don’t get overtime pay. But is the reverse true-does an employer have to pay full salary if the employee isn’t at work? Some deductions from pay will be proper, but some may cause an employee to lose that exempt status and qualify for overtime. Allowable deductions to your salary, according to a July 2008 Department Of Labor fact sheet, include where an exempt employee: is absent from work for one or more full days for personal reasons other than sickness or disability; for absences of one or…

Nobody may work harder, and nobody may have more job satisfaction, than a nurse. But with all of those hours put in, do nurses generally qualify for overtime pay, or are they exempted under the FLSA? The answer to that question may depend on what kind of nurse you are, what your duties are, what your educational background is, and how much money you are paid. A July 2008 advisory letter from the US Department of Labor lays out all of the various considerations in deciding whether or not a…