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WAGES & HOURS

Worker's hour count is off—Now what?

12/31/2008
  

Q. We do not believe that one of our employees is keeping accurate time records of her work. Can we pay her what we believe she worked instead of what her time records show?

Court: No punitive damages for lost breaks

12/24/2008
 

A California appeals court has overturned a large punitive damages jury award in a case involving underpaid wages and missed meal and break periods. Had the court upheld the awards, employers would have had a whole new reason to lose sleep over inaccurate payroll records.

Offer meal breaks—and tell workers to take them

12/24/2008
 

California’s Labor Code provides substantial protection for hourly workers by requiring that their employers offer meal breaks during long shifts. But what happens if you tell employees when to take their meal breaks, and they don’t?

Failure to provide for breaks will cost $25 million

12/24/2008
 

Federated Department Stores has agreed to settle charges that it denied meal and rest breaks to Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s department store employees. According to the settlement, Federated will pay $25 million to 200,000 employees.

New law eliminates OT for highly paid computer professionals

12/24/2008
 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill that will eliminate overtime pay for certain computer professionals. Assembly Bill 10 creates an overtime exemption for computer professionals working in California who are engaged in “intellectual or creative” work ...

Kaiser settles wage-and-hour suit for $5.4 million

12/24/2008
 

The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan has agreed to settle a class-action wage-and-hour lawsuit brought by 770 California employees. Under the terms of the settlement, Kaiser agreed to pay $5.4 million, $3.7 million of which will go directly to the class members who claimed they were misclassified ...

Morgan Stanley will pay $16M to settle race bias suit

12/24/2008
 

A federal judge has given final approval to the settlement of a race discrimination lawsuit brought by financial advisors against Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. The settlement establishes a $16 million fund, of which $14 million will be divided among class members who submitted claims.

What are California's requirements for employee resting & eating facilities?

12/24/2008
  

Q. Are there any specific requirements regarding the types of resting and eating facilities California employers must provide for their workers?

Court not sold that SEPTA is 'arm of the state'

12/24/2008
 

A bus driver recently sued the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), claiming she and all others like her had been paid less than they were entitled to. SEPTA tried to get out of the lawsuit by saying it was an arm of the state, and therefore immune from Fair Labor Standards Act claims.

Employers slashing '09 salary budgets

12/24/2008
 

Remember those surveys last summer forecasting steady 3.6% salary increases for 2009? Forget about it. U.S. workers, on average, are now projected to receive annual merit increases of between 2.3% and 3.0% ...

BlackBerry time: When must you pay for employees' off-duty PDA hours?

12/24/2008
 

Hand-held devices, such as BlackBerrys, Trios, iPhones, etc., make it easy for workers to check e-mail and do work at any time of day. And your nonexempt, hourly workers may demand to be paid for that screen-time. So, when must your organization pay nonexempt employees for such off-the-clock work? There’s no clear-cut answer.

Can we cut the pay of a lousy employee?

12/24/2008
  

Q. We conduct yearly performance evaluations, during which we review whether employees have met expectations. If an employee fails to meet those expectations, can we legally decrease the employee's salary?

Must we pay travel costs when light duty means a temporarily longer commute?

12/24/2008
  

Q. One of our employees who normally reports to another facility has been out on workers' comp and is now doing light duty in the office. Getting here adds an extra hour to his commute. I know we don't have to pay for his commuting time, but what about his travel expenses?

Must we grant time off for witness duty?

12/24/2008
  

Q. An employee has been subpoenaed to appear as a witness in a criminal case. Are we required to pay him for that time, or can we have him take vacation time or an unpaid leave of absence?

Must we pay for short smoking breaks?

12/18/2008
  

Q. Would a brief clock-out (initiated by the employee) of less than 20 minutes, such as an impromptu smoking break or personal phone call break, need to be paid as work time? The company accepts such impromptu clock-out breaks without prior supervisor approval.

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