Connecticut Employment Law Blog Insight on Labor & Employment Developments for Connecticut Businesses

Tag Archives: flsa

Offers of Judgment in FLSA Collective Actions: Another Tool for Wage & Hour Claims

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

Last week, while most of us were focused on the events in Boston, the U.S. Supreme Court came down with a notable decision last week involving a wage & hour class action (it’s actually called a “collective” action, but for the non-lawyers out there, just think of it as a class action) and what should… Continue Reading

The Beginning of the End for Wage & Hour Class Actions Through Arbitration Agreements? Second Circuit Sets Stage

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Discrimination & Harassment, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

Suppose you have your employees’ sign agreements to arbitrate all of  their employment disputes.  (I’ve talked about arbitration agreements in many posts before.) Can you have an arbitration agreement that says that an employee is precluded from bringing a Title VII (race or gender discrimination) class action claim in Court? Employees have argued that because most arbitration agreements… Continue Reading

More Litigation, More “Doing” Assistant Store Manager Overtime Cases

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

At 47 pages, U.S. District Court Judge Hall’s decision last week in Costello v. Home Depot USA (download here) denying an employer’s motion for summary judgment in an overtime case, isn’t exactly a light read.  She is, of course, not to blame. The case is complicated and has a “somewhat convoluted procedural history” because it was first filed… Continue Reading

Should You Care That Supreme Court Will Rule on Offers Of Judgment in Wage Cases?

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Litigation, Wage & Hour

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Not all employment law cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court matter are of equal significance and importance to employers. What? How can that be, you say? It’s the SUPREME COURT!  Isn’t everything that they say important? Well, sort of. The truth is that sometimes… Continue Reading

Court Bars Use of Fluctuating Work Week to Calculate Award in Overtime Case

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Litigation, Wage & Hour

In prior posts, I’ve talked about the fluctuating work week and how it can be a useful tool for employers in limited circumstances.  Yesterday, a federal court in Connecticut had a very interesting ruling that addressed whether an employer — when faced with a suit for overtime by a group of convenience store employees (“clerks”,… Continue Reading

The One In Which I Try to Explain the Joint Employer Test

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

“How You Doin’? said the character Joey from the TV show “Friends“.  I say that here because this post is about the “joint employer” test for the Fair Labor Standards Act and its an otherwise dry post. “I know!” (You might be saying, if you were Monica from that same show.) “Could that BE any more boring?” (To… Continue Reading

Second Circuit Affirms a Broader Definition of “Executive” FLSA Exemption

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Litigation, Manager & HR Pro’s Resource Center, Wage & Hour

There are three major “white-collar” exemptions to the federal overtime rules that are, to some employers, a bit confusing to say the least.  One of them — the “executive” exemption — is mistakenly understood to just include, well, senior executives of a company. A new case out by the Second Circuit (Ramos v. Baldor Specialty… Continue Reading

BREAKING: Pharmaceutical Representatives are “Outside Salesmen” Under FLSA; Exempt from Overtime

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

The U.S. Supreme Court this morning ruled, 5-4, that pharmaceutical representatives are “outside salesmen” under the Fair Labor Standards Act.  In plain English, this now means that those representatives are now considered exempt from overtime. This decision is a big victory for pharmaceutical companies who have been facing years of class action suits (some of… Continue Reading

Going Mobile: Lessons in Employment Law For HR

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Wage & Hour

This afternoon, I’m speaking at Workforce HR’s Techweek Conference on “Going Mobile”.  It’s not too late to join us here as it is an online conference. Oh, and did I mention that it’s FREE.  There, got your attention. One of the topics that I’ll be talking on is the legal risks involved with “going mobile”… Continue Reading

Court Upholds Use of Fluctuating Work Week Method in Connecticut

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Litigation, Wage & Hour

My colleague, Mick Lavelle, has this post on a topic that few know about and even fewer understand: The Fluctuating Work Week.  For more background on the subject, I’ve talked about it in earlier posts here and here.  Interpretation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act is aided by hundreds of pages of regulations and U.S…. Continue Reading

Written Consent Form Needed For FLSA Collective Action

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Litigation, Wage & Hour

Ever wonder what happened to the case of the “exotic dancers” who claimed that they were misclassified as independent contractors? Well, the case continues and yesterday, the federal court denied a summary judgment filed the strip club on a technical issue that is probably overlooked by employers in many instances.  You can download the decision… Continue Reading

“Linsanity” for Employers to Fail to Post Required Notices

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Manager & HR Pro’s Resource Center, Wage & Hour

Employers in Connecticut (and other states) have a whole host of notices that must go up in a common meeting area for employees to see. But what happens when an employer forgets to do the postings, or, worse, purposely avoids putting those posters up?  A recent federal case in Connecticut addresses that question with important… Continue Reading

What to Expect When You’re Expecting the Department of Labor

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Highlight, Wage & Hour

As I’ve noted before, both the U.S. and the Connecticut Department of Labor have had a renewed focus on investigating employers for compliance with state and federal wage & hour laws. But what should you expect when the DOL comes calling for an investigation (either as part of a random audit or a complaint)?  First… Continue Reading

Quick Hits: FLSA & Arbitration Agreements, Initial Discovery Protocols, Dating Policies, EEOC Charges, Ledbetter

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in CHRO & EEOC, Class Actions, Discrimination & Harassment, Litigation, Wage & Hour

There are lots of items I had hoped to write about but, as many of you have observed, there’s only so much time in the week.  So, it’s time to bring back the recurring “Quick Hits” feature to highlight some tidbits worthy of your consideration: Are arbitration agreements that waive FLSA collective actions enforceable? No,… Continue Reading

Hybrid Wage-and-Hour Class Actions Blessed by Second Circuit

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Litigation, Wage & Hour

Ok, bear with me for a second. If your employees want to bring a class action against your company claiming that they should’ve been paid overtime, there are typically two ways to do so: Bring a claim under state law, or bring a claim under federal law (Fair Labor Standards Act). There’s a big difference:… Continue Reading

“Vaporizing” One Area of Employment Law? Hmmm.

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations

In a post Friday, Walter Olson over at Overlaywered posed this question, “If I could press a button and instantly vaporize one sector of employment law…”  (His suggestion? Age Discrimination laws.) Jon Hyman, at the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog, picked up on the question and posed it for his readers as well.  Jon’s choice? The… Continue Reading

The Seven Updates To Consider to Your Employee Handbook

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Featured, Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Legislative Developments, Manager & HR Pro’s Resource Center

With all the legislative developments in Connecticut over the last year or so, it’s tough to keep track of all of the changes that your company needs to consider to update your employee handbook and employment policies. Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of some of the changes to consider with a link to more information on… Continue Reading

Paid Sick Leave: How Some Non-Exempt (Under State Law) Workers May Not Be Covered

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Legislative Developments, Wage & Hour

As employers in Connecticut know, state and federal laws differ when it comes to paying overtime. Some employees (like computer professionals) are exempt from overtime obligations under federal law, but not under state law. The new Paid Sick Leave bill just makes a mess of this distinction even further. How? Well, the definition of “service… Continue Reading

Second Circuit Revisits Standards for “Working” Time vs. Off-the-Clock in Reviving Wage & Hour Class Action

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Litigation, Wage & Hour

When does the workday begin? When does it end?  These were among the questions that the Second Circuit addressed and resolved in an important wage & hour decision last week. The case, Kuebel v. Black & Decker, can be downloaded here. The court held that an "employee’s commuting time is not compensable as part of his… Continue Reading

More New Employment Law Regulations: Fluctuating Work Week & Tip Credit Under FLSA

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Wage & Hour

Last month, it was the EEOC that released new regulations on the ADA.  This week, it’s the Wage & Hour Division of the Department of Labor, that has released new regulations on the Fair Labor Standards Act.  The new regulations will go into effect in early May 2011. While some of these revisions are more technical… Continue Reading

Who’s a “Successor” for FLSA Purposes? District Court Outlines Three Tests…And Punts

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Wage & Hour

When faced with an unpaid wage claim (such as one brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act — FLSA, for short), an employer has one option that is often off the table, an option nicknamed the "nuclear option".   What is it? It is to close the business, either through a bankruptcy or just an… Continue Reading

Time to Modernize Workplace Laws: What Aspects Can Be Updated?

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Human Resources (HR) Compliance

Let’s go back to 1935. You remember that time, right?  Well, in 1935, Babe Ruth retired from baseball. A gallon of gas cost 10 cents. Igor Sikorsky was still working on developing the helicopter in Connecticut. And we were still 10 years away from even ideas like Dick Tracy’s Two-Way Wrist Radio. It was also… Continue Reading

Stripping Down the Latest FLSA Decision: Adult Entertainers

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Litigation, Wage & Hour

While I dig back out from vacation, my colleague Jon Orleans forwarded this update on a recent case in the Second Circuit. While the case is from New York, it may ultimately have some implications in Connecticut if it is appealed.   A recent decision from the Southern District of New York certifies an FLSA… Continue Reading

DOL Releases Fact Sheet on Break Times for Nursing Mothers Under FLSA

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Human Resources (HR) Compliance

Connecticut employers have long since had to deal with Conn. Gen. Stat. 31-40w which has stated that every employee who wishes to express breast milk or breastfeed at work can do so during a meal or rest period. Employers are obligated to find a suitable room or other location (other than a toilet stall) where the… Continue Reading