The simple answer to this question is: “a herd of cats.” However, because this is the first in a series of posts discussing the effective management by counsel of collective actions, a more thorough answer is probably in order. Introduction Employees who wish to bring a representative action under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”) must do so under the collective action mechanism...
Last week the Supreme Court decided Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District, which held that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) requires schools to provide students with disabilities an Individualized Education Program (“IEP”) reasonably calculated to enable a child to make progress appropriate in light of the child’s circumstances. The decision was a victory for students with disabilities because it...
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued two opinions, Salinas v. Commercial Interiors, Inc. and Hall v. DirecTV, LLC , in which it set forth a new rule for determining whether two or more entities are jointly and severally liable for the failure to pay workers overtime compensation or minimum wages. The “joint employer doctrine,” which is derived from the Department of Labor (“DOL”) regulations, has long been used to hold...
The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), which governs overtime compensation and minimum wages, provides special rules for paying employees who receive tips from customers. The FLSA obligates all employers to pay employees a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Under limited circumstances, however, an employer may pay tipped employees $2.13 per hour, and apply up to $5.12 per hour from the tips the employees receive. Under the FLSA, “tipped...
The use of electronic signatures has become prevalent in human resources, particularly when obtaining hard copy signatures is impractical. Although using electronic signatures allows businesses to execute and store documents more efficiently, employers who do not implement proper safeguards to authenticate their employees’ signatures risk having them invalidated. Whether an electronic signature is sufficient to execute an agreement is a matter...
When it comes to calculating overtime compensation and minimum wages, employers cannot simply mandate by policy when they consider their employees to be working. Instead, whether an employee is "on-the-clock" is determined by the rules and principles set out in the Fair Labor Standards Act, which is the federal law that governs minimum wage and overtime compensation. Common issues in calculating compensable time include: Unscheduled...