Investigations of Common Violations of Overtime Laws
Nichols Kaster, PLLP is currently investigating certain industries and employment practices that violate overtime laws. Discussed below are some common ways in which employers violate the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage and hour laws. If you have experienced similar violations, please contact us.
For information about the minimum wage rates in each state, please visit the Department of Labor's website at http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm
Assistant Managers/Shift Supervisors
Many employees with job titles such as "assistant manager" or "shift supervisor" believe they are not eligible to receive overtime as they are supervising others. Recently, a number of overtime cases have been filed on behalf of assistant managers whose primary duty is not management. Assistant managers or shift supervisors who do not regularly supervise two or more employees, do not have the authority to hire or fire employees, or spend the majority of their time performing the same duties as the employees they supervise may be eligible for overtime pay. If this describes your employment situation, please contact us to take action.
Automatic Time Clock Systems
An increasing number of employers are using computerized timekeeping systems to track their employees’ work hours. Many such systems are set to automatically clock employees in and out at certain times or to automatically record a lunch of a set duration. However, many employees arrive at work early, stay late, or take short lunches. Automatic time clock systems frequently do not record this extra work time, and employees do not receive the wages they are owed. If your employer’s timekeeping system does not give you credit for all the time that you work, please contact us to take action.
Cable Installers and Technicians
Companies in the cable industry, particularly subcontractors of the network providers, are notorious for failing to pay cable installers and technicians overtime pay. We currently represent nearly 1,000 cable installers and technicians from across the country in cases for unpaid overtime. Presently we represent cable installers and technicians in cases against FTS USA, Unitek USA, Source Broadband Services, Wave Comm GR, Communications Unlimited, Inc., Groupware, Rudder, and New Vision Telecommunications (NVT).
Common wage violations in the cable installation industry include:
Piece Rate Violations: Cable installation companies often pay their cable installers and technicians on a “piece-rate” basis. Although the company may pay its technicians by a “piece-rate” compensation system, the company must still track all hours worked (including travel between jobs, time spent at the shop, time spent waiting between jobs, and work performed at home) and pay overtime in addition to the piece rates when the technicians work more than forty (40) hours in a workweek. Calculating overtime wages in a piece rate compensation system is not difficult. Despite how easily overtime pay can be calculated, many cable installation companies fail to pay proper overtime wages or any overtime wages. You may have a claim for unpaid overtime wages if you worked as a cable installer or technician within the last three years, and the following pay practices occurred to you:
- Employer did not record any of your hours worked (or did not make you record your hours worked).
- Employer did not pay any overtime pay when you worked more than forty hours in a week.
- Employer did not allow you to record all of your hours worked.
- Employer did not include in your total hours worked time spent driving from job to job, time spent at the shop, time spent waiting for customers between jobs, or time spent working from home.
- Employer paid overtime wages but the overtime wages did not reflect your actual hours worked.
If any of these pay practices happened to you within the last three years, please contact us via email at intake@nka.com or toll free at 877-448-0492.
Independent Contractor Violations: Another common violation occurs when cable installation companies classify some or all of their cable installers and technicians as “independent contractors” or “1099 employees” in order to avoid the federal and state overtime and minimum wage requirements. This practice can result in workers being cheated out of minimum wages, overtime pay, retirement and/or health benefits, FICA taxes, workers’ compensation and unemployment benefits to which they would otherwise be entitled. An employer’s use of a 1099 form does not automatically make a cable installer or technician an independent contractor. Instead, courts consider several important factors to determine whether a worker has been improperly classified as an independent contractor, including:
(1) the degree of control exercised by the employer over the workers,
(2) the workers’ opportunity for profit and loss and the workers’ investment into the business,
(3) the workers’ investment into tools and materials,
(4) the degree of specialized skill and independent initiative required to perform the work,
(5) the duration of the working relationship, and
(6) the extent to which the work is an integral part of the employer’s business.
No one factor is determinative; instead, courts look at all circumstances of a working relationship to determine the proper classification. If you have worked as a cable installer or technician within the last three years, worked more than forty hours in a week without overtime pay, and were classified as an “independent contractor,” you may be able to make a claim for your unpaid overtime wages. Please contact us to discuss your situation further via email at intake@nka.com or toll free at 877-448-0492.
Call Centers
Frequently, call center employees are paid for a set timeframe, such as 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but they may be required to be at their workstations before and/or after the shift without being compensated for this extra time. This practice violates the law. If you have experienced a situation such as this, please contact us to take action.
Compensatory Time
Compensatory time or "comp time" occurs when an employer allows an employee to receive days off in lieu of overtime compensation. Comp time in lieu of overtime compensation is permitted when you are a governmental employee, and when certain conditions are met. In addition, in some states private employers can give comp time in lieu of overtime compensation.
In general, non-exempt employees working for private employers are eligible for overtime pay during the weeks in which they work overtime. Private employers cannot give comp time to non-exempt employees in lieu of overtime pay and require those employees to use comp time at a later date. Non-exempt employees must be compensated for overtime during the week in which it is worked. If you are a not exempt employee, and required to take comp time in lieu of overtime compensation in weeks other than those in which you work overtime, please contact us to take action.
Computer/IT Employees
The Fair Labor Standards Act contains very specific provisions for employees who work with computers. In order to be exempt from the FLSA, computer employees must be paid at least $27.63 per hour or they may be paid a salary of $455 per week. Additionally, exempt computer employees must work in software design, systems analysis, or similar areas. Frequently, employers do not fully understand these requirements and assume that employees working with computers should not be eligible for overtime pay. If you work in the IT or computer field , do not meet the requirements above, and do not receive overtime pay, please contact us.
Donning and Doffing
In jobs that require employees to wear uniforms or other gear necessary to the job, employees can spend a significant amount of time each day “donning and doffing” (i.e., putting on and taking off) their gear. The Supreme Court has recently held that in most cases, employees should be paid for this time. If you work in a job that requires you to wear special gear and you are not paid for the time you spend donning and doffing it, please contact us to take action.
Field Service Technicians/Engineers
Many companies employ “field service” technicians or engineers to provide direct field service performing installations, testing, and providing customer service and technical support to customers in the field. Industries that employ field service people include the telecom, semiconductor, environmental, network-critical power equipment, computer, and construction industries. Because the job duties of field service technicians/engineers primarily consist of manual labor and customer service, these employees are generally eligible to earn overtime pay. If you are a field service technician or engineer, primarily provide technical support to your employer’s customers in the field, and you are not paid for overtime, please contact us to take action.
Independent Contractors
In an effort to cut costs, employers are increasingly classifying workers improperly as “independent contractors.” This classification can exploit workers out of entitled minimum wage, overtime compensation, retirement and/or health benefits, FICA taxes, workers’ compensation and unemployment.
The employer’s use of a Form 1099 does not automatically make an individual an independent contractor in the sense relevant to overtime and minimum wage laws. Instead, courts consider several important factors to determine whether a worker has been improperly classified as an independent contractor. These factors include: (1) the degree of control exercised by the employer over the workers, (2) the workers’ opportunity for profit and loss and the workers’ investment into the business, (3) the workers’ investment into tools and materials, (4) the degree of specialized skill and independent initiative required to perform the work, (5) the duration of the working relationship, and (6) the extent to which the work is an integral part of the employer’s business. No one factor is determinative; rather, courts look at all circumstances of a working relationship to determine the proper classification.
If you believe that you are being improperly classified as an independent contractor, please contact us to take action.
Mortgage Industry Employees
Jobs in the mortgage industry require a lot of hard work and, unfortunately, mortgage companies have notoriously poor pay practices. As a result many loan officers, originators, consultants and processors are denied their rightful compensation.
Frequent pay violations in the industry include:
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Job Misclassification: Employees are often improperly classified as exempt from overtime pay when the nature of their work entitles them to overtime pay under the law.
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Off-the-Clock Work: Some companies have the policy that overtime is only paid when that time is pre-approved by management. Consequently hourly mortgage employees regularly have to underreport their hours worked on their time records and, thus are not paid the full amount that they deserve.
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Meal and Rest Breaks Violations: Many mortgage employees have to work through their meal or rest breaks because of the amount of work they have to get done. Certain states require that employees be given their allotted breaks every day or employers will be held liable under state law.
Our firm has extensive experience representing mortgage employees in overtime cases. If you worked as a loan officer/consultant/originator or a loan processor with a bank or mortgage lender in the last three years and were denied some or all of your overtime pay, please contact us, for a free review of your possible claim.
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