The Fifth Circuit granted the government’s request for additional time to file its final reply brief in the pending appeal of a nationwide injunction issued by a Texas District Court Judge, blocking the DOL’s controversial overtime rule raising the required salary level for the white collar exemptions. The final reply brief will not be filed … Continue Reading
The government has asked for another delay in submitting its final brief to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the DOL’s Final overtime rule, which raised the salary level for the white collar exemptions from $23,660 to $47,476. The final reply brief was scheduled to be filed on May 1, 2017, after two earlier … Continue Reading
An online ticket broker that sells tickets to concerts, sporting events, and the theater qualifies as a “retail or service establishment” under Section 207(i) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), Judge John Lee of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois held. Blahnik v. Box Office Ticket Sales, LLC, 2017 … Continue Reading
In the latest round in the litigation between 21 States, led by the State of Nevada, and the Department of Labor regarding the Final Rule, the State Plaintiffs filed their appeal brief today with the Fifth Circuit, urging the Court to affirm the district court’s order, which issued a nationwide injunction blocking the rule. “As … Continue Reading
The Texas AFL-CIO recently filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in the action filed against the Department of Labor (DOL) regarding its highly publicized regulation expanding overtime coverage. Fearing the DOL under President-Elect Donald Trump might abandon its appeal to the Fifth Circuit of a nationwide preliminary injunction issued by a Texas District … Continue Reading
On December 2, one day after filing its appeal of the preliminary injunction blocking its new salary basis regulations, the DOL filed a request for expedited briefing and oral argument in the appeal. The DOL has requested that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals set an expedited schedule whereby briefing would be complete on February … Continue Reading
On December 1, 2016, the Department of Labor appealed the district court’s preliminary injunction ruling. It is expected that the DOL will request the Fifth Circuit to rule on the appeal quickly, but the Fifth Circuit may not grant this request, and the appeal may not be resolved prior to January 20, 2017. If the … Continue Reading
Jackson Lewis Principal Eric Magnus contributed to this post. The U.S. Department of Labor regulations raising the required salary level for the white collar exemptions (executive, administrative, and professional) under the Fair Labor Standards Act are scheduled to become effective December 1, 2016. Since the results of Tuesday’s election, some employers are considering whether to … Continue Reading
The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday voted 246 to 177, largely along party lines, in favor of legislation which would delay the rule’s effective date by six months, from December 1, 2016, to June 1, 2017. Prior to the anticipated late night vote on the bill in the House, Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) introduced the legislation … Continue Reading
Providing much needed guidance to industry employers still wrestling with fallout from the United States Department of Labor’s drastic reduction to the scope of the companionship exemption, District Court Judge Sandra S. Beckwith held this week that a home care agency properly relied on the temporary vacatur of the DOL’s new federal regulations in electing … Continue Reading
The Fair Labor Standards Act exempts “employee[s] employed in agriculture” from its overtime requirement. Recently, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit applied this exemption to the operations of an employer who “moved to the United States from his native France in 1992 to grow worms,” and affirmed the district court’s decision holding that … Continue Reading
This month, two New York federal judges reviewing a claim of misclassification rejected a claim for overtime compensation, agreeing that a business properly classified two translators as independent contractors rather than as “employees” under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law. See Mateo v. Universal Language Corp., 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue Reading
The United States Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Integrity Staffing clarified that, under the Portal-to-Portal Act, preliminary and postliminary tasks are not compensable even if potentially done for the employer’s benefit, provided they are not integral and indispensable to the job functions for which a person is hired. Applying this concept, a Maryland Federal Court … Continue Reading
Visit the Jackson Lewis Workplace Resource Center here for a detailed analysis of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision in Hargrove v. Sleepy’s, LLC, 2015 N.J. LEXIS 38 (N.J. Jan. 14, 2015), finding the “ABC test” for contractor status applicable to claims brought under New Jersey state wage statutes.… Continue Reading
Division of supervisory duties among different classifications of exempt employees sometimes gives rise to claims that some or all of those managerial employees do not qualify for the executive exemption. Analyzing and rejecting one such challenge, an Arkansas federal court recently concluded that “Team Leaders” at one of the nation’s largest frozen food processing facilities … Continue Reading
The scope of the computer professional exemption, enacted prior to the widespread use of the Internet and before the existence of some of the most well-known tech companies (e.g., it was enacted prior to the existence of Google), is often a source of litigation, as employers and the courts attempt to apply the exemption to … Continue Reading
The “highly compensated” regulation is designed to relax the exempt status tests for the white collar exemptions for individuals who make more than $100,000 per year in total compensation. 29 C.F.R. § 541.601(a). Nevertheless, challenges to exempt classification of such workers can arise, with the employee claiming he or she still was non-exempt based on … Continue Reading
One common “joint employer” allegation which has been regularly rejected by courts is that a regional cable provider is a joint employer of its installation subcontractors’ employees or contractor installers, due to the alleged business or operational control the cable provider exerts over the subcontractor in how installation work is performed. A Missouri court recently … Continue Reading
In response to pressure from state governments and others fearing the increased cost of home care services, the Department of Labor announced Tuesday that it would delay its own enforcement of the new rule requiring that previously-exempt “companions” receive minimum wage and overtime. The DOL’s Policy Statement stated that the DOL would not enforce the … Continue Reading
The rapidly evolving world of information technology can give rise to disputes regarding the applicability of the FLSA’s 20+ year-old exemption for “computer professionals.” A new decision reinforces that individuals whose job responsibilities require them to maintain large networks qualify for the exemption. Campbell v. Kannapolis City Schs. Bd. of Educ., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue Reading
Service providers vendors (and those vendors’ employees) are free to assert claims that they “employees” of the entity for which they are providing services under the FLSA under independent contractor misclassification and joint employer theories. Service providers continue to do so despite limited success, the most recent example being Judge Andrew Carter’s (SDNY) summary judgment … Continue Reading
An attorney and his lawyer made headlines recently when he asserted an FLSA claim against prominent Manhattan law firm Skadden Arps claiming the firm owed him overtime pay for his work as a contract attorney on large scale litigation handled by Skadden. On Wednesday, Judge Richard J. Sullivan granted Skadden’s motion to dismiss the claim. … Continue Reading
The California Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in Sullivan v. Oracle signaled, but did not conclusively rule, that no circumstances could support a California Labor Code claim by an employee working outside the State of California. However, a new California federal court decision emphatically holds that the application of California’s Labor Code should end at the … Continue Reading
The FLSA’s technical “white collar exemption” regulations, slated for review and potential overhaul later this year, allow plaintiffs’ attorneys and even the highly paid employees they represent to challenge exempt status. A recent decision from the Eastern District of Virginia rejects one such claim brought by a highly paid information technology worker paid a salary … Continue Reading
