Wage & Hour Issues

How Procedural Requirements May Help – or Doom – Your Unpaid Overtime Case in Georgia

October 31, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Claiming “time of the essence” is a common marketing technique. Sellers use deadlines to create a sense of urgency and motivate buyers to act. In sales, a deadline may not be real; it may be merely an artificial tool to pique the customer’s emotions. In law, time really is of the essence in many settings, including matters involving Fair Labor Standards Act violations. A lawsuit filed after the statutory deadline is vulnerable to a motion to dismiss that will, barring special circumstances, likely end the case with no further litigation, no trial, and no award of damages. Whether you are a worker seeking to ensure a timely filing or an employer seeking to terminate a case that was filed too late, obtaining representation from an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer can be an essential step en route to success.

Absent special circumstances, workers pursuing FLSA claims generally must file within either two or three years. If the worker has presented a willful violation of the law, then the law allows three years to bring that case. If the violation is not an allegedly willful one, the worker has only two years in which to sue. If you are the party seeking relief, filing after the limitations period has elapsed is potentially catastrophic to your case. Conversely, a filing that was outside the limitations period can be a huge boon if you are an employer facing an FLSA claim. In each scenario, a motion to dismiss can terminate the case right away.

A federal unpaid overtime case from Miami is a good illustration. Although not taking place in Georgia, the Miami parties were subject to the same set of requirements under the federal rules as parties to a federal lawsuit in Georgia would face, including satisfying the statute of limitations.

What to Do (and Avoid Doing) to Minimize Your Risk of Liability Exposure for Illegal Retaliation

October 25, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Decisions made on impulse or driven by emotions often make bad situations worse. As an employer, dealing with your alleged Fair Labor Standards Act violation the wrong way can significantly expand the legal liability you may face. A minimum wage or unpaid overtime violation is one thing; a minimum wage or unpaid overtime violation plus a violation of the law against retaliation is unequivocally worse. Knowing what to do (and, often, what not to do) when faced with a FLSA claim is crucial. An experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer can help you mitigate your existing liability exposure, and avoid unnecessary additional forms of exposure, as well.

Some missteps are born of a fierce urge to tell “your side of the story.” While sometimes understandable, this can lead to serious trouble.

Take, for example, a recent FLSA retaliation action from New England. The case arose after the president of a Vermont excavation company fired one of his truck drivers following a dispute about overtime pay. The driver complained to the Wage and Hour Division. That agency’s investigation ended with a settlement calling for the employer to compensate the driver for back pay and unlawful discharge.

Breastfeeding Awareness Month Has Ended, But It’s Still the Right Time to Focus on the Requirements of the PUMP Act and the FLSA

October 8, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

National Breastfeeding Awareness Month may have ended a few weeks ago (August 31) but any time is a good time for employers and employees who are new (or expecting) mothers to familiarize or re-familiarize themselves with the rights and responsibilities that federal and state laws lay out for workers who need to nurse or express milk (a/k/a pump) during the work day. If you have questions about this aspect of the law, a knowledgeable Atlanta wage and hour lawyer is an essential resource for obtaining reliable answers and ensuring compliance.

Some of the federal requirements in this sphere are well-known, such as the obligation to give nursing/pumping moms breaks to breastfeed/express milk and provide those moms with an appropriate space for this activity. (In other words, not a toilet stall in the office’s communal bathroom or a supply room with no lock on the door that coworkers enter frequently.)

Multiple recent federal class action lawsuits against fast-food employers have focused on the right to an appropriate pumping location.

The Importance of Understanding the FLSA’s Exemptions and Making Proper Exempt/Non-Exempt Classifications

September 16, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 13.3 million people held jobs in sales and related occupations in May 2023. This group includes, for purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime requirements, both exempt and non-exempt employees. Employers should proceed carefully in classifying their sales workers, as misclassification can result in steep financial consequences. If you have questions about categorizing your sales workers (or about your own sales job,) it is well worth your while to consult an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer to ensure you are getting knowledgeable and reliable advice.

That array of 13.3 million sales workers can be divided into two broad groups: “inside” sales and “outside” sales. “Inside sales” generally refers to workers who sell remotely, such as via the telephone or the Internet, whereas “outside sales” typically refers to workers who meet customers face-to-face. For purposes of FLSA classification, inside sales workers generally are non-exempt while outside sales employees are generally exempt.

An inside sales worker can be exempt if the realities of their job place them within one of the law’s recognized exemptions, but employers should tread cautiously before trying to “shoehorn” their inside sales employees into an exemption. Misclassification errors are often very costly, as a recent unpaid overtime case from New England illustrates.

Collective Actions Under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Federal Court Jurisdiction in Georgia

August 23, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Collective actions (which are highly similar to class actions except they litigate workers’ Fair Labor Standards Act claims against their employers) are occurring more frequently. This reality serves as a reminder of the importance, as an employer, of ensuring complete compliance when it comes to the minimum wage, overtime, classification, and other pay practices covered by the FLSA. If you are a worker who has been denied the pay the FLSA requires – or you are an employer with questions about the FLSA and FLSA collective actions – you should make sure you have reliable answers and information. You can do that by getting your advice from an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer.

Like class actions, collective actions may include both named plaintiffs and additional plaintiffs who subsequently “opt-in.” Some employers, when facing collective actions far from their “home” base of operations, have used the presence of these “opt-in” plaintiffs to fight the collective action on jurisdictional grounds, including one employer that scored a successful outcome recently.

The employer, a Texas-based construction company, employed workers to construct, among other things, buildings that housed livestock. A Wisconsin employee sued the employer in a federal court in that state, alleging that the employer illegally underpaid him by wrongfully classifying him as exempt under the agricultural worker exemption.

The FLSA’s Pay Practice Rules Regarding Inclement Weather-Related Business Closures

August 12, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Compliance with the federal overtime compensation and the minimum wage standards can be affected by many things… even the weather. These wide and varied influences on businesses’ compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (and accompanying regulations) serve as a reminder that ensuring compliance is an extensive and multifaceted project. Whether you are an employer seeking to ensure your pay practices are compliant or a worker denied proper compensation, an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer can advise you about your rights and obligations.

Hurricane Debby struck Florida earlier this month as a Category 1 storm but quickly entered Georgia packing tropical storm-force winds and massive volumes of rain. The storm forced schools, government offices, and businesses to close across South Georgia, including Savannah and Brunswick.

In North Georgia, our businesses are more likely to close temporarily because of snow and ice rather than tropical weather, but closures do happen. Employers may reasonably wonder what their pay obligations are under the FLSA when workers are not at work because of weather-related closures.

What a Congressional Bill Could Mean to Georgia Employers When It Comes to FLSA Compliance… and the Penalties Attached to Violations

July 25, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Across the country, many state and local governments are enacting – or debating — legislation to combat wage theft. Another body considering statutory changes is the federal government, where a proposed bill would substantially increase the penalties on employers found to have violated the FLSA’s prohibitions against wage theft. Whether you are a worker who has been denied pay you were owed or yours is a business seeking to ensure statutory compliance, get the answers you need by consulting an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer.

Governments that have recently enacted, or are debating, new wage theft laws include Oregon, California, Minnesota, New York State, and the City of Denver, to name a few.

The proposal pending in the U.S. House of Representatives, which has come up in each of the last two Congresses, is a bill called the “Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act.”

Lessons About Exempt Versus Non-exempt Classifications from a Recent Call Center Employee Case

July 11, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

As an employer or an employee, compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act is important to you. If you are a worker, non-compliance often means denial of the total compensation the law says your employer owes you. As an employer, non-compliance can have numerous damaging and costly consequences. If you have questions about FLSA compliance, including classification and exemption issues, make sure you are getting reliable answers by contacting an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer.

For employers, misclassification is a common basis for FSA violation liability. Errors can occur in the context of employer-versus-independent contractor classifications or exempt-employee-versus-non-exempt-employee determinations. When deeming a worker as an exempt employee, it is important to identify all bases under which that worker may be exempt under the law, as a recent ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals illustrates.

The unpaid overtime case involved an auto dealership group in West Palm Beach, Florida, and three of its call center employees. The employees, who worked in the dealership’s “business development center,” a separate building next door to the dealership’s auto showroom, spoke to prospective car buyers over the phone to convince them to make appointments to visit the showroom and speak with showroom salespersons.

The Emergence of AI in the Workplace and How AI Can Potentially Contribute to FLSA Violations

June 28, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

These days, ads for artificial intelligence-related programs and applications seem to be everywhere. AI has the potential to do many beneficial things like making workplaces more efficient and safer. It also has the possibility of negative impacts, including in the area of employment law. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) recently released a publication warning of ways that AI can lead employers into violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Whether or not they are tied to AI, an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer can provide very human answers to all your questions about FLSA compliance.

The WHD’s recent publication, Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2024-1, looked at ways AI could lead an employer into non-compliance. The first area the division discussed was AI productivity monitors.

Modern AI technology can monitor workers “in real time,” using metrics like website browsing, the number of computer keystrokes or mouse clicks, or eye movements (via webcam,) to ascertain an employee’s activity and productivity levels. While employers may use this technology and these metrics to assess employees’ diligence and productivity, those determinations do not necessarily govern how the law calculates workers’ hours worked.

Recent Actions by the U.S. Department of Labor Point to Ways Employers May Run Afoul of Rules Governing Tipped Worker Pay

June 21, 2024 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Many bartenders, restaurant servers, and others in the hospitality industry depend on tips for a substantial portion of their compensation. In these industries, minimum wage and overtime disputes are common, whether they arise from good-faith recordkeeping errors or intentional misconduct by employers. Whether you are an employer or a tipped employee, look to an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer when you have questions about the laws and regulations regarding tipped work.

If you are a tipped employee or your team includes tipped employees, it is important to understand thoroughly the FLSA and the Labor Department’s rules regarding tipped workers.

The FLSA bars employers from paying tipped workers only in tips. Minimum wage law requires employers of tipped workers to pay those employees sub-minimum wages, but that sub-minimum floor is not zero. For states that do not have standards above the FLSA requirement, federal law controls.