Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Originally Posted By: Anduril
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
How do you know that they weren't paid what their contract says? If they were paid regular time plus $7/hr for OT, maybe that's what their contract says. They might not know exactly what their contract says associated with a situation like "lock down" pay.
Unless they are salary, a contract cannot violate federal overtime law.
I think there are a lot of "it depends" in that matter (see link below). My contract did not pay me 1.5 and 2.0 pay for overtime - it was regular time plus a fixed amount which was far from 1.5 pay. And I know for a fact this super large company was not violating Federal Law on OT pay ... there's no way they could and get away with it, too many people monitoring them daily on their operations.
Question is ... what are the rules that make you
exempt from the Federal Law on OT? I was definitely exempt from 1.5 and 2.0 OT pay, while others in the company did get 1.5 and 2.0 OT pay.
https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime_pay.htm
"The federal overtime provisions are contained in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Unless exempt, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay."
I've been fighting some wage issues in my job, and while I wouldn't claim to be an expert I have learned a fair bit about FLSA as a result.
In the context of FLSA, "exempt" has a very specific meaning. Basically, in order to be an exempt employee you must pass certain "tests" in terms of your job duties(the gist of them is that you need to be in a supervisor or executive position or have a highly skilled technical position) AND you must earn a minimum of $23,600(it was set to go to $47,455 at the end of 2016, but that is currently under an injunction). I'll also add that a position can be classed as FLSA exempt if the earnings are over $100K a year regardless of what the position involved.
Also, there are specific requirements for what is considered an "independent contractor." The general guidelines on that are that you need to supply your own tools/equipment and are free to come and go as you wish as well as having the freedom to take or reject specific jobs as you wish. Even if you are working "on a contract" if you are expected to maintain certain work hours and use your employer's equipment you are covered under the FLSA.
If an employee is not FLSA exempt, federal law is pretty clear that they are owed 1.5x for any time physically worked over 40 hours per week.
Also, I'll add that that the injunction last fall came at the 11th hour. My employer was nearly complete with the transition to comply with the new FLSA regulations and elected to just go ahead and follow them as the amount of work to undo it(and then later redo it) for an organization that size is tremendous. It wouldn't surprise me if there are a LOT of large employers who did the same.