Turns out that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) borrowed a page out of the private sector and reclassified employees as exempt when they should’ve remained non-exempt employees eligible for overtime pay–a clear violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Affected employees didn’t like being awarded comp time instead of time-and-a-half and filed a complaint; an arbitrator has just ruled in their favor. EEOC Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru mumbled something employees’ working too many flexible schedules and promised to look into matters. I didn’t read anything about back pay’s being awarded, however.
Meanwhile, the EEOC recently relocated to a new building in an area north of Union Station that isn’t as, well, developed as the old location, and employees are sick over the move–literally.
Seems that the new building has a formaldehyde leakage problem, and it’s causing people headaches, dizziness, nausea, coughing and breathing problems. Tests show that the level of formaldehyde is well below OSHA standards, so maybe it’s the lack of trendy restaurants in the area that’s really causing the problems.
Nothing that a good, long lunch on comp time couldn’t remedy.