According to the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, compensable hours include all the time that an employee is required to be on the employer’s premises, on duty, or at a prescribed workplace. According to the lawsuit, the car wash company’s owners would clock out employees when the amount of business dropped, then clock employees back in when business picked up. The employees, however, were required to stay at work while they were off the clock.

The Wage and Hour Division says that problems adhering to Fair Labor Standards typically arise when employers “fail to recognize and count certain hours worked as compensable hours.”

In a report by the Tennessean, Megan Macareg, director of Middle Tennessee branch of Jobs with Justice, a national organization that defends workers against unfair employment practices, said the car wash employees “didn’t have anywhere to sit or eat.”

“To a large extent, the company has cleaned up its act, but the stealing of wages is a massive problem,” Macareg said.

Wage theft activist and author Kim Bobo traveled to Nashville to attend a rally celebrating the settlement. Bobo is the executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice, a Chicago-based organization that appeals to the shared convictions of all religions in protecting the rights of waged workers.

Bobo, who believes that wage theft has become an epidemic in the U.S., blames corporate greed, the tough economy, and lack of government involvement. “Over the last decade, we have seen an abdication of the role of the government enforcing labor laws,” she said.

SOURCE: Fair Labor Standards Act › Nashville workers settle FLSA complaint against employer

Build-A-Bear Workshop, an international retailer with more than 400 locations worldwide, allows customers to design and create their own teddy bears. The Wage and Hour Division found that many Build-A-Bear’s Midwestern retail locations violated government regulations prohibiting workers under 18 years old from performing hazardous activities and working in potentially dangerous environments.

In one instance, 16- and 17-year old employees routinely loaded and operated industrial trash compactors. Another violation involved underage employees operating and riding in a freight elevator.

Enrique Rodriguez, the Wage and Hour Division’s district director in St. Louis, told Wichita’s KAKE that “Every year, young employees are injured while performing prohibited work.” His office launched regional investigations as part of the child labor mall initiative, aimed at bringing shopping malls into better compliance with FLSA regulations.

“The department’s hazardous orders regulations exist to promote safety and prevent workplace injuries in the nation’s youth workforce,” he told KAKE.

Rodriguez also told KAKE that Build-A-Bear has fully cooperated with the Wage and Hour Division and has taken the proper measures to avoid future violations.

Earlier this year, the same child labor initiative uncovered multiple violations of the FLSA youth employment provisions by retail establishments Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach. A random investigation of 19 stores, restaurants, and movie theaters at 3 different malls found 50 minors operating dangerous equipment such as trash compactors and paper balers.

SOURCE: Fair Labor Standards Act › Teddy bear company cited for FLSA child labor violations

In March, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced her intentions to revamp and empower the Wage and Hour Division, saying that she would increase the Division’s staff size by a third in an effort to “refocus the agency on [its] enforcement responsibilities.” The addition of new field investigators, she said, “will reinvigorate the work of this important agency, which has suffered a loss of experienced personnel over the last several years.”

Last year, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Wage and Hour Division’s enforcement of FLSA laws dropped to record lows under the Bush Administration. Most abused by employers were FLSA regulations guaranteeing minimum wage and overtime compensation. Abuse of the laws grew while enforcement of the laws shrank, creating what wage theft activist Kim Bobo called a “national crisis at this moment in our nation” to the tune of $19 billion per year in unpaid overtime alone.

Bobo, who is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Worker Justice program, supported the GAO investigators in their findings. “The wage and hour division is so understaffed,” Bobo said, “that it is actually now doing fewer investigations of wage and hour complaints than it did in 1941, the year it was founded. Wages are simply being stolen.”

The appointment of Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor is as symbolic as it is significant, and promises to bring about change for workers who have endured workplace abuse for years. The daughter of immigrants from Nicaragua and Mexico, Solis is both personally and professionally familiar with the plight of the working class, and particularly the struggles of the working class immigrant.

“The U.S. Department of Labor is the voice for working families, and I am dedicated to ensuring compliance with federal labor laws to both strengthen our economy and protect workers in this country,” Solis said.

Sources: http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/media/press/whdpressVB3.asp?pressdoc=national/20090305.xml

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/13416/

http://www.bostonreview.net/BR34.3/maclean.php

SOURCE: Fair Labor Standards Act › Solis works to revamp and empower Wage and Hour Division

In his decision, the arbitrator said that the case “demonstrates action that went beyond mere negligence.”

“This overtime ruling against the EEOC is vindication that the ‘model employer’ should not be exploiting the dedication of its hardworking employees,” said Gabrielle Martin, president of the National Council of EEOC Locals.

In the Washington Post report, acting EEOC Chairman, Stuart J. Ishimaru, said that “Going forward, the agency will examine its overtime practices and make any necessary changes.”

“We want to do overtime right,” he added.

The EEOC employees union filed a grievance in 2006, alleging that employees received compensatory time rather than overtime pay. The disputed practice, which stretches back to 2003 and continues to this day, represents a violation of FLSA rules. The situation appeared even uglier when the arbitrator found that employees almost never requested comp time. In effect, all the extra hours employees worked amounted to neither extra time nor extra pay.

“With rare exception in this record, the concept of ‘requesting’ compensatory time was a fiction,” the arbitrator said in his decision.

According to the Washington Post, the EEOC is dealing with an “unprecedented level” of discrimination charges, up 26 percent from 2006. Concurrent with the rise in complaints is a drop in EEOC staff, which has withered 25% in the last 8 years,effectively leaving less people to deal with more work.

SOURCE: Fair Labor Standards Act › EEOC violated FLSA rules for years

According to the bill’s summary, the proper classification of these workers would ensure they are treated correctly in relation to employment tax purposes upon a determination of misclassification by the Secretary of the Treasury; repeal the ban on Treasury regulations or revenue rulings on employee/independent contractor classifications; and eliminate the defense of industry practice as a justification for misclassifying workers as independent contractors.

The bill also would require the Secretary to establish a procedure for workers to petition for a determination of their status as employees or independent contractors; would require the secretaries of the Treasury and Labor to issue annual reports and exchange information on worker misclassification cases; directs the Secretary of Labor to include on workplace posters required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) a notice informing workers of their right to seek a status determination; and requires employers to notify their independent contractors of their federal tax obligations, labor and employment protections inapplicable to independent contractors and their right to seek a status determination from the IRS.

Employers also would be required to maintain records on independent contractors for three years, including names and tax identification numbers.

The bill was read twice before the Senate and then referred to the Committee on Finance, where it is currently being reviewed. Read the full bill, Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act of 2007.

SOURCE: Fair Labor Standards Act › Obama bill seeks to clarify contractor employee classification

Because of the diverse nature of the American workforce, there is special consideration given to various groups such as children working on farms. Selected terms were given for people in executive and administrative positions as well as thousands of other special cases who are able to claim exemptions to FLSA regulations.

In August 2004 the most important change to FLSA came about. Lawmakers decided to amend the document and clearly establish which jobs are exempt from overtime and which jobs are not. As a result, millions of Americans who were once eligible for overtime pay had now been ‘reclassified’ into administrative, professional and executive categories which disqualified them for their overtime pay.

Hard working Americans deserve respect for their contributions to society and should be entitled to fair and just compensation for their labors. If you or a loved one has been a victim of oversight, negligence or deceit in the workplace it is important that you contact an experienced FLSA lawyer immediately. FLSA litigation can be confusing and time consuming, and only a professional FLSA attorney will be able to get you the compensation you deserve.

SOURCE: Fair Labor Standards Act › FLSA lawyers-fair labor standards attorney and lawsuits