interstate commerce

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Although applicability of the Motor Carrier Act (MCA) exemption from overtime is predicated on “interstate commerce,” interstate commerce can include wholly intrastate travel by a covered employee when shipped in a “practical continuity of movement” across state lines. A new opinion highlights this doctrine. Kennedy v. Equity Transp. Co., 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143565…

Affirming a ruling from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit last week confirmed that drivers for a motor coach company remained exempt under the motor carrier exemption, notwithstanding the relatively low volume of interstate transit and related revenue generated by the company’s interstate routes. Resch v. Krapf’s Coaches…

The high volume of FLSA litigation, particularly in jurisdictions such as New York and Florida, has in recent years forced many small businesses truly outside the scope of FLSA coverage to defend lawsuits brought pursuant to its minimum wage and overtime provisions.  Typically, these smaller employers attempt to address the issue of coverage early…

Of the FLSA’s many highly technical exemptions from overtime, one that can require a detailed regulatory and factual analysis to properly apply, is the motor carrier exemption. In a new decision highlighting one of technical aspects of the exemption, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that the proper measure of…

The highly technical application of the motor carrier exemption to the FLSA’s overtime payment requirement often requires an analysis of the goods being transported by the purported motor carrier. If the goods in question are still traveling in the “continuous stream of interstate travel,” triggering Department of Transportation jurisdiction over the motor carrier, the exemption …

When small and medium-sized businesses are sued under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a common litigation issue is whether or not the defendant-employer – or the plaintiff-employee – is covered under the Act, through either its broad “enterprise coverage” or “individual coverage” of the worker’s employment. Where enterprise coverage is not present, typically because the…

The requirements of the FLSA’s motor carrier exemption have been historically difficult to apply. This is particularly true after the 2005 enactment of SAFETEA-LU, a federal transportation bill that unintentionally modified the definition of a qualifying motor carrier, and the subsequent passage of the 2008 Technical Corrections Act, an amendment to SAFETEA-LU clarifying the latter’s impact…

The motor carrier exemption is one of the original exemptions contained in the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.   But seventy years later courts continue to clarify its contours. In just the past few months, several decisions have addressed the exemption—some addressing basic threshold issues and others addressing changes made by dizzying legislation passed between 2005-2008…