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Wages & Hours

AT&T and BellSouth face back-Wage suit

03/01/2008

AT&T Corp. and BellSouth Corp., based in Atlanta, have been hit with a class-action unpaid wage and overtime lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Northern District. The lawsuit seeks back wages for time worked before and after shifts and during meals and rest breaks on behalf of employees in call centers in several states …

Study: Big increase in wage-Related lawsuits in ’07

03/01/2008
Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits outnumbered cases relating to employment discrimination and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in 2007, and the trend will likely continue in 2008, according to an annual study by the law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP …

IBM fixes overtime problem … with a pay cut

03/01/2008
For years, IBM Corp. was haunted by a big overtime lawsuit filed by its highly compensated technical-support employees.  Now, nearly two years later, IBM has reclassified 7,600 technical-support employees, making them eligible for overtime. But the company also reduced their base pay by about 15% …

The HR I.Q. Test: March ’08

03/01/2008
Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz … 

Pennsylvania one of seven hot employment law states

03/01/2008
Pennsylvania is one of seven hot states for wage-and-hour complaints, according to a report by employment law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Fourth Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report shows that wage-and-hour court actions are growing at the highest rates in Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas …

Can we dock pay for punching in late? Does the employee have a grace period?

03/01/2008
Q. Is there a rule for docking someone’s pay if he punches in late, and if so, how many minutes grace time does he get before you dock him 15 minutes?

Look at duties—Not job title—When determining FLSA status

03/01/2008
Too many employers make a common mistake when deciding whether an employee is entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): They look at a job title and conclude that it sounds managerial—and therefore it must be an exempt position …

Be prepared to explain why you pay some employees more

03/01/2008
Chances are, you don’t pay everyone who performs the same job exactly the same amount of money. You may, for example, have negotiated a higher rate of pay for a new employee to fill a critical shortage. Or you may pay less to recently hired employees than those loyal workers who have been with you for several years. Those are all valid and defensible reasons. That doesn’t mean, however, that you won’t be sued under the Equal Pay Act …

Wage-and-Hour suits are hot

03/01/2008
Wage-and-hour lawsuits are growing exponentially, according to the fourth Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report from national law firm Seyfarth Shaw …

Even a pay increase can lead to discrimination charges

03/01/2008
Don’t think because an employee receives a raise, he or she can’t sue for discrimination. The fact is, an “inadequate” or “unequal” raise can be the basis of a discrimination lawsuit—if other employees outside the affected employee’s protected class got bigger and better raises …