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.

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 ...

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 ...

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.

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.

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?

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.

Q. Some of our supervisors make their exempt employees take personal or sick leave for every minute they miss from work, even if they work a regular schedule the rest of the week. Can we safely do that?

If an employee thinks he isn’t being properly paid for overtime, expect a lawsuit. You may be able to settle such a case—at a price. It will likely be expensive, covering attorneys’ fees as well as the lost wages. Plus, the court will carefully scrutinize the settlement to make sure it’s fair.

Employers, beware: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has just made it much easier for the DOL to file lawsuits against employers. All the DOL needs to do is file a complaint alleging unpaid wages.

Star One Staffing, based in Coral Gables, has agreed to pay $113,000 in back wages and damages to 70 Filipino workers to settle charges brought by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Watch out if you ever fine employees, force them to pay others to perform work they can’t finish or make them provide their own equipment. Those expenses may cause them to earn less than the minimum wage.

Many employers make mistakes when it comes to classifying employees—either exempt (salaried) or nonexempt (hourly) from the federal overtime rules. Those mistakes can lead to expensive class-action lawsuits. And if employers failed to track hours worked, it makes it all the more difficult to settle the case.

A busboy who worked in singer and actor Justin Timberlake’s Manhattan restaurant, Southern Comfort, is suing the star seeking unpaid wages and tips.

Do you have employees who live and work in another state, but whose jobs sometimes bring them to California? Then you may be making a big overtime mistake if you pay them as if they were working in their home states.