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FLSA

Employees change clothes at work? Heed new pay rules

09/15/2010
The U.S. Department of Labor has issued a new interpretation letter that says time spent changing in and out of “protective clothing” (e.g., helmets, smocks, aprons, gloves, etc.) is considered paid time. Find more details and a link to the DOL letter at www.theHRSpecialist.com/clothing.

Beware legal risk of raising employee’s title in lieu of pay

09/09/2010

With nervous employers still keeping generous raises on the shelf, more companies are turning to job title promotions to show their appreciation. The risk: The titles themselves don’t reflect the duties of the position and required expertise, which can cause difficulty separating exempt and non-exempt employees.

Can we shuffle hours between weeks to avoid OT?

09/06/2010
Q. Employees at our construction company sometimes work more than 40 hours in one week, but far fewer than 40 the next. We have been transferring the extra hours to the next week. Can we do this?

Don’t shoot yourself in the foot! If you praise extra work, pay for it

09/02/2010

Nonexempt employees are entitled to be paid for all the hours they work. Before issuing a performance appraisal that hails hourly employees for coming in early and staying late, make sure they were appropriately compensated. Otherwise, your praise may come back to haunt you.

Novartis settles class-action sex bias suit–for $175 million

09/01/2010

Novartis Pharmaceuticals has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by female sales reps just two months after a federal jury awarded the plaintiffs $250 million in punitive damages. Novartis challenged that verdict, and the court had scheduled a hearing for November. Under the settlement, Novartis will pay $152.5 million in return for dropping its appeal.

Can employees also be independent contractors at the same company?

08/31/2010
Q. “Are there any legal issues with having some of our full-time permanent employees also having contracts to do subcontractor work (1099) for the same place they are employed?” — S.M., Wisconsin

Is pay required for after-hours work functions?

08/27/2010
Q. Can we require full-time nonexempt employees to attend work-related functions after regular hours? If so, should this time be compensated?

Can I be personally liable for misclassification?

08/24/2010
Q. Let’s say I do the payroll for a company and know that we are misclassifying employees (exempt vs. nonexempt; independent contractors vs. employees). And let’s say I advised the owner, but he chose to leave it as is. Could I be held liable as the payroll administrator?

What are the new regulations on paying for time employees spend changing clothes?

08/18/2010
Q. How has the recent DOL interpretation letter addressed an employer’s obligation to pay employees for time spent changing clothes?

Military leave starts Tuesday: Pay for full week?

08/18/2010
Q. One of our exempt employees is in the Reserve. He is going on a two-week training session that starts on a Tuesday. That means he will work on Monday, the start of our week. Do we have to pay him for the whole week when he is only going to be here Monday?