FLSA

The number of lawsuits filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act reached an all-time high last year.  
During the 12-month period ending June 30, 2010, 7,028 FLSA lawsuits were filed in federal district courts nationwide, according to statistics recently released by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.

Waiters, bartenders and other tipped employees may spend no more than 20 percent of their time on “general preparation work or maintenance” duties, such as setting tables, making coffee or washing dishes, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The U. S. Department of Labor on April 5 will publish updates to its Fair Labor Standards Act interpretive regulations in the Federal Register, to go into effect 30 days later.  

The “clean-up regulations” revise regulations that had become out of date because of amendments to the FLSA dating back as far as 1974.

A store manager who performed all the tasks necessary for the successful operation of the store and whose income depended on both that success and on her store’s profits is exempt as an executive under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the 4th U.

Oral complaints by employees about possible employer violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act are protected activities under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s retaliation provision, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled March 22.

The U. S. Supreme Court has let stand, without comment, a ruling by the 2nd U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals that pharmaceutical sales representatives did not qualify for either the administrative exemption or the outside sales exemption from the overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The U. S. Supreme Court has declined to review an appeals court ruling that an employee misclassified as an exempt administrator may be awarded back overtime damages under the Fair Labor Standards Act at only half her regular rate of pay, rather than the standard time-and-a-half rate.

Pharmaceutical sales representatives who urged doctors to prescribe certain drugs, but did not actually sell them, nonetheless qualified for the outside sales exemption from the Fair Labor Standards Act, the 9th U.

The White House’s fiscal year 2012 budget request to Congress, released Feb. 14 by the U. S. Office of Management and Budget, reflects the administration’s ongoing determination to fuel its enforcement of federal employment laws.

Guaranteed pay for sick leave hours not used by an employee and “bought back” from his or her employer must be included in that employee’s regular rate of pay, on which overtime pay is based under the Fair Labor Standards Act, because such sick leave buy-backs are a form of incentive pay, a federal appeals court has ruled.