Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in the Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro case, that many hoped would resolve the issue as to whether Service Advisors at auto dealerships are exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). As we reported back in January 2016, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a petition filed by an auto dealership, Encino Motorcars, challenging a Ninth Circuit decision holding that Service Advisors were not exempt from overtime pay requirements. Encino asked that the Court “restore uniformity” in legal precedent and hold that Service Advisors are exempt from the FLSA’s overtime pay requirements. Auto dealers were hoping that the Supreme Court would bring certainty to this issue and follow prior decisions from the Fourth and Fifth Circuits holding that Service Advisors are salespeople exempt from overtime, instead of following the Ninth Circuit’s contrary decision. Although the Supreme Court ultimately vacated the Ninth Circuit’s decision, the Court’s opinion leaves the issue open to further consideration.
Continue Reading The Supreme Court Shoots Down DOL Regulations, But Declines To Rule Whether Service Advisors are Exempt From Overtime Pay Requirements
Coaches and Athletic Trainers Under the New FLSA Rules
As schools seek to adjust to the new Department of Labor overtime exemption rules and increased salary standards, nearly every institution has classification and overtime-calculation questions about athletic coaches and athletic trainer positions. The NCAA (in conjunction with CUPA-HR) has now issued a helpful paper addressing exemption analysis and practical considerations applicable to these roles that can be found here. The analysis identifies several options for potentially classifying coaches and athletic trainers as exempt from overtime, which hinge fundamentally on defining each individual’s “primary duty.” That can be tricky, particularly for assistant coaches, given that (1) federal law defines primary duties as the “most important” (which may or may not be those that consume the most time) and (2) coaches are commonly assigned a wide variety of tasks and roles, depending on particular team needs, size of institution, or head coach preferences. Definitive decisions about classification will thus continue to require case-by-case analysis of each coach’s particular situation, but the NCAA’s paper provides several helpful concepts to help frame such decisions.
Highlights of the exemption analysis include:
Continue Reading Coaches and Athletic Trainers Under the New FLSA Rules
Top 5 Takeaways From Webinar on Final DOL Overtime Exemption Rule
Thank you to those who attended today’s webinar, “New DOL Overtime Exemption Rules – What You Really Need to Know Now.” We hope that everyone enjoyed the presentation and learned information that will assist in getting your organization ready for compliance. A recording of the webinar is available here.
For those unable
The New FLSA Exemption Rules and Higher Education
As we previously reported, the Department of Labor has now issued its long-anticipated final overtime exemption rules for white collar workers. In addition, the DOL published more detailed guidance for higher education institutions (.pdf) seeking to comply with the new obligations. As expected, the compensation adjustments mandated by the new rules require substantial effort to balance college and university budgetary constraints, workforce morale concerns, and legal compliance obligations in the next several months.
The DOL estimates that the new rule will result in approximately 35% of all current full-time, salaried workers being eligible for overtime based on their salary level alone. At the same time, increasing so many positions’ salaries to meet the new $47,476 threshold creates substantial concerns with salary compression on campus for positions already above that threshold. To address such concerns and to minimize the need to comply with future increases of the FLSA salary threshold, many institutions of higher education are likely to seek to convert positions to non-exempt status; at the same time, they will need to address employee-morale concerns related to such a conversion and diligently manage the number of hours or methods of compensating for overtime wherever possible for budgetary reasons.
As schools determine the best approach for seeking to adjust to the new rules, the guidance issued yesterday as well as a white paper that we prepared earlier this year offer ample advice specific to higher education institutional needs and concerns. Examples of key components of the guidance include the following:Continue Reading The New FLSA Exemption Rules and Higher Education
Webinar: The New Overtime Rules for Executive, Administrative and Professional Employees Are Here – What You Need to Know Now
FRANCZEK RADELET WEBINAR
Date: Monday, May 23, 2016
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. CST
Please join us for a webinar lead by William R. Pokorny and Staci Ketay Rotman as they give us an overview of the U.S. Department of Labor’s new overtime rule for white collar employees. This rule affects both public
New Rules Announced: $47,476 Minimum Salary, Effective 12/1/2016
Late yesterday the White House and Department of Labor released key details of the new FLSA overtime exemption rules for white collar workers. The final rules themselves have just been released this morning. We are still digesting 500-plus page
Supreme Court Upholds $5.8 Million Judgment Based on Statistical Analysis
On Tuesday, March 22, 2016, the United States Supreme Court affirmed a $5.8 million dollar judgment against Tyson Foods Inc. in a class and collective action filed by workers claiming uncompensated time donning and doffing time. Contrary to what many predicated given the trend in class action rulings, the Court upheld the workers reliance on statistical analysis that used average time estimates to determine overtime owed for class recovery.
Continue Reading Supreme Court Upholds $5.8 Million Judgment Based on Statistical Analysis
Possible Final New Overtime Rule Before July
Just a few weeks ago, we posted our latest update on the Department of Labor’s proposed new overtime rule, which calls for a more than doubling of the salary level threshold for white collar exempt positions. At that time, we reported on the House Education and Workforce Committee’s renewed inquiry into the DOL’s outreach efforts,
Continued Controversy Surrounding The Proposed New Overtime Rule
Since June, we have written a number of posts covering the Department of Labor’s proposed new overtime rule (see our posts here), and the more than doubling of the salary level threshold for white collar exempt positions. The proposed increase in the salary threshold was quite polarizing and resulted in nearly 300,000 comments. Despite
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Service Advisor OT Pay Split
As we reported back in October 2015 a car dealership, Encino Motorcars, petitioned the Supreme Court to “restore uniformity” to the enforcement of legal precedent and hold that service advisors are exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements. On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and hopefully resolve the issue once and for