The federal regulations to the FLSA impose recordkeeping burdens on employers (see, e.g., 29 CFR § 516.2) but those same records are most vital in assisting employers’ defense of claims of unrecorded work hours ("off the clock" claims). That utility was exemplified this week by a new decision from the Court of
suffer or permit
Florida Federal Judge Rules Business E-mails Sent During Lunch Not Compensable
While an employee must be paid for all hours worked under the FLSA, time which is “de minimis” may, depending on the circumstances, not be considered compensable “work.” Compensable “work” also does not include periods where the employer did not “suffer or permit” the employee to perform work. A federal judge in Florida recently invoked these concepts…
Eleventh Circuit: Absence of Records Does Not Mean Plaintiff’s Assertion of Unpaid Work Hours Must Be Accepted
An employer’s failure to maintain proper records of hours worked by non-exempt employees results in an evidentiary burden shift in overtime cases. Rather than being entitled to rely on properly maintained records, the employer must rebut the employee’s claim of unpaid overtime provided the plaintiff supports his case with testimony leading to a “just and…
Seventh Circuit Finds Employee’s “Work” Not Compensable Due To Lack Of Employer Knowledge
The proliferation of FLSA lawsuits brought by “non-exempt” employees for alleged uncompensated working time has highlighted several important FLSA questions. One prominent and thorny question concerns when and how an employer is deemed to have constructive knowledge of work allegedly performed by an employee, such that the employer will be deemed to have “suffered or permitted&rdquo…
Detroit Federal Court Rejects Employee’s Attempt To Seek Recovery Based on Auto-Deducted Meal Break
In this post, we discussed two different courts’ analyses of hospital plaintiffs’ attempts to seek conditional certification of their claims that they were not paid for allegedly working meal periods due to the employers’ use of an auto-deduct for meal periods. In an opinion addressing such a claim on the merits (as opposed to the…
California Federal Court Rejects Plaintiff’s Attempt To Impose Joint Employer Liability On Outside Human Resources Consultant
Wage and hour plaintiffs, like all plaintiffs, seek recovery from the largest, most viable defendants. Often, employees who separate from failing businesses seek to broaden the scope of the concept of “employer” within the meaning of wage-hour laws and include as defendants other potentially-liable parties with “deep pockets.” As discussed here, a federal court in Pennsylvania…