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A former employee recently brought a class action lawsuit against Wendy’s for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  The lawsuit, filed on behalf of all service technicians, alleges that the technicians routinely reported fewer hours than they actually worked, and seeks compensation for unpaid work hours worked and overtime hours from December 2011 to the present. Under the FLSA, employees must be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all “hours worked,” whether clocked in or not.  All covered employees must be paid overtime for all hours worked in excess of forty (40) in one workweek.  With the exception of higher management or other exempt positions in the fast food chain, Wendy’s must pay employees who work over 40 hours at week overtime at a rate of one-and-one-half times their regular rate of pay.  Employers may be required to pay unpaid minimum wage, unpaid overtime compensation, or liquidated damages as a consequence of violating the FLSA. Source:  Former employee files FLSA class action against Wendy’s, Dec. 18, 2014

Last week, law firms Barkan Meizlish DeRose Cox, LLP and JTB Law Group, LLC filed a class and collective action against S & E Flag Cars, LLC (“S & E”), a Kentucky limited liability company in the race track operations business.  The lawsuit, Perkins et al. v. S & E Flag Cars, LLC et al., was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio as a class and collective action on behalf of all non-exempt current and former employees of S & E over the past three years.  Under Ohio and federal wage and hour law, nonexempt employees must be paid at least the minimum wage for all hours worked, plus overtime pay at a rate of one and one half times the regular rate for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek.  The Complaint asserts that S & E violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the Ohio Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act (“Ohio Wage Act”) by failing to pay Plaintiffs overtime compensation at a rate of one and one half (1.5) times their regular rate of pay.  Plaintiffs seek to recover monetary damages, liquidated damages, and costs, including attorney’s fees, for themselves are all others similarly situated. Barkan Meizlish DeRose Cox, LLP focuses on wage and hour litigation, workers’ compensation, Social Security disability, and personal injury/medical malpractice.  Over the past fifty years, Barkan Meizlish DeRose Cox, LLP has represented the rights of working people on and off the job through representation of labor unions, individual employees, and the injured and disabled.  The lawsuit was filed by attorney Bob DeRose ( bderose@barkanmeizlish.com).  Learn more at www.barkanmeizlish.com, or visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Barkan-Meizlish-Handelman-Goodin-DeRose-Wentz-LLP/197862930238456.

Workers frequently work over 40 hours a week in this rapidly growing industry, sometimes even up to 100 hours per week. With much of the work sub-contracted out to smaller companies, the structure of the oil and gas industry certainly makes it “an industry ripe for noncompliance,” as stated by Dr. David Weil, administrator of the Wage and Hour Division. Investigators for both state and federal government agencies have specifically targeted this industry over the past few years.  By August of last year, the Department of Labor’s investigations resulted in over $13 million in back wages to over 9,100 employees. There are numerous jobs in this industry that may be entitled to overtime pay, including compressor operators, roustabouts, pumpers, directional drillers, service supervisors, oilfield delivery specialists, rig operators, instrument fitters, electricians, mechanics, and truck drivers. Employers can use many different tactics to avoid paying the required minimum wage and overtime pay to employees.  You should be aware of 3 common violations: 1. Misclassification. One major issue facing oil and gas workers is misclassification—where employers treat full-time nonexempt employees as independent contractors to avoid the overtime obligations under the FLSA. Keep in mind that your day-to-day job duties and actual employment relationship determine whether you are exempt from overtime pay, not your job title.  To make this determination, courts will look to: the degree of control your employer exercises over you, the skill required for your job, whether the services you provide are an integral part of the overall business, and your investment in any materials or equipment. 2. Travel time. Workers will often travel from drill site to drill site   For example, employees working in the field may be required to report to a central office location at the beginning and end of each shift, but travel to various assignment locations throughout the day. These employees should be compensated for all travel from the time they leave the central office location until they return at the end of their shift. 3. Day-rate plans. Workers paid on a day rate basis receive a flat rate per day, regardless of the number of hours worked.  But this does not eliminate your employer’s obligation to track hours or pay overtime compensation—this common method of payment may still violate the FLSA if nonexempt employees do not receive time-and-a-half for hours worked over 40 a week. Questions? Learn more at www.barkanmeizlish.com. Unpaid Wages Attorney Columbus Ohio Source: WHD News Release, US Labor Department helps more than 5,300 Pennsylvania and West Virginia oil and gas workers recover $4.5M in back wages for unpaid overtime (Dec. 9, 2013) http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/whd/WHD20141883.htm