The Laconic Law Blog

The current minimum wage is set at $5.85 per hour and increases to $6.55 per hour on July 24, 2008.

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Here are a couple of blog posts of interest today:

The Pennsylvania Labor and Employment Blog has a post on OFCCP Audits.

The Ohio Employer’s Law Blog has a post on overtime implications of reading emails on your Blackberry after work hours.  (We previously posted on the topic here.)

The FMLA Blog has a post on the Supreme Court’s decision to deny certiorari in the Taylor v. Progress Energy case out of the Fourth Circuit.  The case leaves intact a Circuit split on the issue of whether waivers of FMLA claims are enforceable absent Court or DOL approval.  The Solicitor General had urged denial of certiorari because the DOL is revising its regulations to make clear that waivers of past claims are enforceable but prospective waivers are not.

In Sutherland v. SOS International, Judge Cacheris of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia denied the employer’s pre-trial motion for summary judgment related to the employee’s overtime claims under the FLSA and discriminatory discharge claim under USERRA due to the existence of factual disputes.  The denial of the employer’s pre-trial motion for summary judgment means that the case will proceed to a jury trial.  The case highlights some of the issues that trip up employers when defending these types of claims.

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The U.S. Department of Labor has posted a new Administrator-signed FLSA opinion letter regarding the application of the administrative exemption.  The opinion letter can be found here.  The position is question was a Product Technology Application and Marketing Analyst (PTA).  The letter concludes that the position is exempt.

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The WSJ Blog has an article today on whether after-hours Blackberry use is the next wage and hour battleground.  The article is here. 

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The Massachusetts General Assembly has passed a bill mandating the award of treble damages as liquidated damages to prevailing plaintiffs in wage lawsuits in the state.  The law does not require a finding of willfulness or bad faith in order to recover liquidated damages.  The text of the bill is here.  It has been presented to the Governor for signature.

An article in HR Magazine this month (SHRM membership required to access) entitled “Guard Against FLSA Claims:  Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits are increasing.  Are your classifications in order?” reminds us of the need for employers to be proactive about FLSA issues.  The US has seen a dramatic increase in FLSA lawsuits in recent years.  Here is an article in Fortune Small Business article called “Overtime Pay:  A ticking time bomb.”  We previously commented on the low threshold for certification of a collective action by a court here.  Overtime lawsuits are here to stay and ignoring the problem will not make them go away.

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In an ironic twist, an arbitrator has ruled that the EEOC systematically violated the FLSA by misclassifying investigators and mediators as exempt from overtime compensation.  The Manpower Employment Law Blawg has the story here.

The Department of Labor has issued several new opinion letters related to the Fair Labor Standards Act.  The Administrator signed letters (FLSA2008-1 and FLSA2008-2) can be found here.  The non-Administrator signed letter (FLSA-2008-5NA) can be found here.

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled on January 31, 2008, that the filing of a fraud lawsuit against a former employee constituted actionable retaliation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (”FLSA”).  The opinion can be read here — Darveau v. Detecon, Inc., No. 06-2092.

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In a published decision today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed an arbitration award in an FLSA class action.  The case is interesting because of the implications for employers using mandatory arbitration agreements.

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The U.S. Department of Labor announced December 10, 2007, that CVS Pharmacy, Inc. will pay $226,598 in civil penalties and $38,151 in back wages in connection with the settlement of an FLSA investigation into wage and youth employment violations.

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