The new rules also concern tip pooling arrangements, which make clear that tips cannot be diverted from people receiving them unless a valid tip-pooling arrangement has been established and promulgated to participants. The regulations navigate a course between conflicting Department of Labor (DOL) and federal court opinions.

Confused about FLSA requirements? Get a copy of Personnel Concepts' FLSA Compliance Program, and end that confusion today.

The Labor Department issued a six-factor test to determine internship status to great fanfare a year ago and announced that it would be cracking down on businesses that misclassified as interns people who were otherwise doing work that should be compensated.

In Solis v. Laurelbook Sanitarium and School, Inc., the DOL's litmus test was rejected by the justices, who wrote:

[W]e hold that the proper approach for determining whether an employment relationship exists in the context of a training or learning situation is to ascertain which party derives the primary benefit from the relationship. Factors such as whether the relationship displaces paid employees and whether there is educational value derived from the relationship are relevant considerations that can guide the inquiry.

Of course, this is no indication that other courts won't side with the DOL, but in the 6th Circuit at least, a new standard has been set.

To better understand and comply with overtime, internship and general wage and employment standards, Personnel Concepts offers its powerful but easy-to-use FLSA Compliance Program that comes with both a manual and a CD-ROM. Get yours today.

In Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, the justices rejected what they termed a "narrow interpretation" of language in the FLSA and threw open the statute's protection to oral complaints as well as written ones. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

The "narrow interpretation" refers to the passage in the FLSA that forbids an employer to “discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any employee because such employee has filed any complaint.” Much of the arguing back and forth hinged on the definition of "filed."

Asking a rhetorical question, the majority opinion reached this game-changing conclusion:

Why would Congress want to limit the enforcement scheme’s effectiveness by inhibiting use of the Act’s complaint procedure by those who would  find it difficult to reduce their complaints to writing, particularly the illiterate,  less  educated, or overworked workers who were most in need of the Act’s help at the time of passage?  Limiting the provision’s scope to written complaints could prevent Government agencies  from using hotlines, interviews, and other oral methods to  receive complaints.

Employers, take an active role in upholding the provisions of the landmark FLSA while keeping your employees informed of their rights and obligations. Order a copy of Personnel Concepts' best-selling All-On-One FLSA Compliance Poster today.

The issue centers on the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exemption from overtime rules for those employees who are engaged in outside sales.

Pharma reps and their attorneys argue that what the representatives do in the field is not selling but conducting public relations meetings and handing out samples of drugs. Big Pharma, obviously, rejects this costly argument, so the two sides have met in court on various occasions.

The most recent decision came this past Monday (Feb. 14, 2011) when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that pharmaceutical representatives are indeed exempt from overtime rules, arguing that:

"The pharmaceutical industry's representatives—detail men and women—share many more similarities than differences with their colleagues in other sales fields, and we hold that they are exempt from the [FLSA] overtime-pay requirement."

Earlier, the 2nd Circuit Court had ruled that the reps are not exempt and are due overtime pay. 

In both decisions, the Department of Labor (DOL), overseer of the FLSA, submitted amicus briefs contending that pharmaceutical representatives are indeed eligible for overtime pay.

The issue would now appear to be moving for a SCOTUS review.

Typically, back wages represent overtime pay that was withheld either knowingly or unknowingly. Since taking over, the Obama administration and DOL Secretary Hilda Solis have beefed up their inspection force by hiring some 300 additional Wage and Hour (WHD) Division agents. The DOL has also launched an outreach program called "We Can Help," which provides a hotline for workers to report wage abuse.

"Protecting worker rights is my top priority," Solis said upon announcing the monetary coup.

Overtime is codified in the landmark Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and has been further defined by Congress throughout the decades.

Get a copy today of Personnel Concepts’ FLSA Overtime Rules Compliance Kit and stay in tune with all federal wage laws.

The updated regulations effect a variety of changes to how DOL will interpret the child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). 

Perhaps the most significant among these changes is the lifting of a decades-old restriction that limited the industries in which 14- and 15-year-olds were permitted to work.

Now, instead of being allowed to work only in retail, food service and gasoline service establishments, young workers may work in other environments such as state and local governments, banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies and information technology firms.

The new regs also increase penalties for violations, especially regarding the injury of death of a teenage worker, and create a new work-study regimen.

Child labor laws and regulations are covered briefly in the mandatory federal minimum wage poster, which is included on all Personnel Concepts Space Saver-1 All-On-One State and Federal Labor Law Posters.

Personnel Concepts is closely monitoring developments at the DOL regarding the minimum wage panel and will alert clients when and if any posting requirements change.

"Beginning today, employers who hire children too young to work will face stiffer penalties," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "Work is not child’s play. When children do work, that work must be age appropriate, safe and positive, and, it must not interfere with their schooling."

Under the Labor Department’s new, tougher penalty structure, employers who illegally employ individuals ages 12 or 13 will face a penalty of at least $6,000 per violation. If a worker is under 12 years of age and illegally employed, the penalty will be at least $8,000. Penalties for illegally employing workers under age 14 could be raised to $11,000 under certain conditions.

"These increased fines, coupled with important recent revisions to the child labor rules and reinvigorated enforcement by the Wage and Hour Division, will help ensure the safety of children," added Secretary Solis.

Child labor laws are part of the mandatory postings that employers are required to display for their employees. Personnel Concept’s Space Saver-1 All-On-One State and Federal Labor Law Posters will meet this requirement for your business. 

Reason? It doesn’t take employees long to figure out that, if they’re doing the same jobs as exempt as when they were non-exempt, then they were probably cheated out of overtime prior to the reclassification.

Voila–Wlotkowski et al. v. Michigan Bell Telephone Company, filed in the Eastern District of Michigan.

Now, Michigan Bell probably did the right thing in realizing the class-action-lawsuit workers were non-exempt, but when it did so, it should also have dealt with the back-overtime-pay issue. Since the company decided to brush that under the rug, it ended up being sued.

There are a couple of lessons here. One is that it’s important to do workforce classification audits, especially with the Department of Labor breathing down employers’ throats to classify (and pay) properly. The other is that, when you do reclassify employees as non-exempt, you must right away square the back-pay issue with them.

Classifying workers is often difficult, but Personnel Concepts offers an FLSA Overtime Rules Compliance Kit, which will explain the criteria for exempt and non-exempt classifications and even provide handy checklist forms.

In essence, this would require companies to find, fix and prevent workplace problems before they happen.

Another part of this strategy would call for businesses to issue documents to workers stating and justifying their job classifications–exempt, non-exempt or independent contractor–and then keep a copy of these documents on file for DOL inspectors.

We already knew through previous DOL announcements that the agency was targeting abuse of job classifications, resulting in underpayment or even non-payment to employees. This latest announcement seems to take matters a step further.

We’ll keep tracking this development, but it will probably take months for the DOL to write the necessary regulations and then hold a public commentary period on them. Still, it’s a good idea to check how your classify your employees (and interns if you have any).

A good source for understanding the difference between exempt and non-exempt employees is Personnel Concepts FLSA Overtime Rules Compliance Kit. Get yours today, for the DOL will catch you if it can.

But all that has changed now that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has launched a crackdown on using unpaid interns as unpaid employees. The Division announced recently, in an opinion letter, that it would henceforth use only the six federal criteria, which are: 

►The interns’ training, even though it includes actual operation of the employer’s facilities, is similar to that given in a vocational school;
►The interns’ training is for the interns’ benefit;
►The interns do not displace regular employees but work under their close supervision;
►The employer does not derive an immediate advantage from the interns’ activities and, on occasion, its operations may be actually impeded;
►The interns are not necessarily entitled to a job when the training period ends;
►The employer and the interns understand that the interns are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.

For those of you who want to be sure you’re following the proper rules and regulations in classifying your employees, Personnel Concepts offers a comprehensive but easy-to-follow FLSA Overtime Rules Compliance Kit.