The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has updated its poster for “Employee Rights Under the Fair Labor Standards Act.” The new poster adds information on lactation breaks and worker (mis)classification. Additionally, the DOL has made its new poster tech-friendly by including a scannable QR code which takes employees directly to the DOL website. The poster … Continue Reading
On March 15, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) sent the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) its final rule expanding the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (“FLSA”) overtime pay requirement. If you haven’t already heard, this rule will raise the threshold required to qualify for the FLSA’s “white collar” exemption to an … Continue Reading
The month of March is synonymous with spring, new beginnings, and St. Patrick’s Day. In the world of sports, it’s synonymous with March Madness: the three-week period where student-athletes from sixty-eight different Universities across the nation compete to be crowned champion of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) basketball tournament. Last year’s tournament brought the … Continue Reading
A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel upheld a 2011 Department of Labor (DOL) rule barring employers from including employees in tip pools who do not customarily and regularly receive tips. The split Ninth Circuit decision in Oregon Restaurant and Lodging, et al. v. U.S. Department of Labor, et al. is perhaps a small step for Circuit … Continue Reading
On Wednesday, January 20, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued an administrator’s interpretation [pdf] that includes guidelines for when companies should be considered “joint employers” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA). The joint employer debate has been gaining steam over the past year. … Continue Reading
The latest chapter in a series of lawsuits filed by temporary contract attorneys against their employing law firms was written by Judge Ronnie Abrams of the United States District Court for the District of New York. As the final seconds ticked down towards the end of 2015 last week, the clock also struck midnight on … Continue Reading
Second Circuit Court of Appeals Adopts New Test for Determining Whether Unpaid Interns Should Be Classified and Paid as Employees Unpaid internship programs have come under heightened scrutiny in recent years by the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, and other regulatory agencies, as well been the subject of a number of high-profile lawsuits. … Continue Reading
Court Orders DOL to Pay Employer’s Attorneys’ Fees in Agency’s Bungled Misclassification Prosecution Nearly 239 years after the Continental Congress declared a set of self-evident truths paving the way for a system of checks and balances, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals checked the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”), requiring it to … Continue Reading
For those (like me!) anxiously awaiting the Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed overhaul of the exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the wait is over. The proposed rule is now available on the DOL’s website (although it has not yet been published in the Federal Register). According to the DOL’s calculations, the proposed rule … Continue Reading
On November 14, 2014, a New York federal judge awarded over $10 million in back pay wages to about 2,000 current and former exotic dancers in a class action lawsuit brought against Rick’s Cabaret for unpaid wages from 2005-2012. This recent order awarding damages to the dancers is a furtherance of the Court’s September 2013 holding … Continue Reading
On November 12, 2014, the Ninth Circuit addressed an issue of first impression regarding the pleading specificity required to bring an action for unpaid minimum wages and overtime wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) in Landers v. Quality Communications, Inc. [pdf] This opinion is important because many employers served with FLSA collective actions … Continue Reading
As we’ve reported here and here, recent decisions from the US Supreme Court, federal appellate courts, and more recently, even the California Supreme Court (see here) have clarified that class and collective action waivers in arbitration agreements, including those that waive employees’ right to bring a claim under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) … Continue Reading
This week’s decision [pdf] from a Pennsylvania district court invalidating the FLSA fluctuating work week method under Pennsylvania wage law serves a good reminder to multi-state employers that just because something is okay under the federal wage law does not necessarily make it so under the corresponding state wage law. Employers should always ensure that their … Continue Reading
One part of the recently upheld Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides that employers must provide “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from instruction from coworkers and the public” which may be used by an employee to express breast milk. The law also mandates that employers provide … Continue Reading
