Tennessee Employment Lawyer Blog

In Tennessee and all over the United States many employees work long hours for their pay, especially employees that serve and protect a city from crime and other problems. However, even these employees do not always get the overtime pay they are entitled to for the hours they work. Many businesses, companies, and even cities find ways around paying these employees the pay they deserve. A recent settlement has been approved for a five year old class action overtime lawsuit involving eight hundred and fifty police officers. The police officers claim that they were not properly paid over the years. One of the police officers also claimed that they should be paid for the time it takes to put on and take off the uniforms and other safety equipment. The Police Protection association for the state agreed later that this particular claim was not compensable and that part of the lawsuit was considered to be null.

The U.S. District Court Judge approved a settlement on January 27, 2012, between these police officers and the city, giving each officer an estimated one and a half months of paid time off throughout their jobs. The settlement also resolves claims such as the city delayed the payment of overtime wages, failed to pay their employees for before or after shift work, did not follow federal rules for paid time off, and failed to pay employees for time spent on call.

The settlement is worth $10 million and includes legal fees. The city will pay this settlement by crediting each officer with two hundred and twenty-five hours of paid time off over the rest of their careers as officers. Officers who may have already retired will be paid cash equal to the time off.

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Tennessee employees and employees all across the country work hard for their pay and they deserve to be paid properly for the hours they work. However, many companies mis-classify their employees so that they are exempt from overtime pay and fail to pay them the overtime they are entitled to for working more than forty hours in a single work week. According to this lawsuit, computer technicians that worked as contractors for the Goldman Sachs Group claim that they are entitled to overtime pay because they worked more than forty hours a week. They claim they worked more than seventy hours a week and that more than one hundred employees were underpaid as a result. They filed a complaint in May of 2010.

The Goldman Sachs Group has agreed to pay $993,831 to settle the lawsuit brought by the computer technicians. According to the filing of the settlement, forty-one computer technicians returned claim forms.

Also according to the filing, “The parties reached the settlement agreement after an arm’s-length mediation held in March 2011.” The Goldman Sachs spokesman declined to comment on the settlement.

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In Tennessee and all across the United States employees who have worked at least one thousand two hundred and fifty hours are eligible to take Family Medical Leave. Employees that have not worked these required hours are usually not protected by FMLA but one court ruled recently that pre-eligible employees may be protected under the leave in certain cases.

According to this case, Kathryn Pereda worked at an assisted living facility. After eight months of working on the job, she told her boss that she pregnant and planned to take Family Medical Leave after the child was born five months later. By the time she took the leave, Pereda would be eligible for it. However, Pereda didn’t make it to five months. The company terminated her three months after her FMLA request when she was one month short of the required twelve months for FMLA eligibility.

The company claimed her performance was poor but Pereda claimed that she was a top employee before making her request for the leave. Pereda then claimed that her request was the real reason why she had been fired and filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming retaliation and interference with her right to take leave. The company claimed that the lawsuit should be dismissed because Pereda was not eligible for FMLA at the time that she was fired. The lower court agreed stating that if the law does not cover you, you are not protected.

However, when the case was taken to the appellate court, the ruling was reversed. The court stated that, “simply by requesting FMLA leave for the future, Pereda was “engaged in a protected activity” under the FMLA and the employer could not take adverse action against her.” Ruling otherwise would provide a loophole which would mean that pre-eligible employees requesting future FMLA leave could be fired without remedy.

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In Tennessee and all over the United States, most employees that work more than forty hours in a single work week, you are entitled by law to receive overtime pay even if you work for a celebrity. Unfortunately, many companies and bosses including celebrities like to find ways around paying overtime or just fail to pay it completely. In a recent case, Jennifer O’Neil was employed as Lady Gaga’s personal assistant for thirteen months. She claims that she was required to handle after task that Lady Gaga demanded. This meant she did tasks such as handling the singer’s scheduling, finances, meals, and making sure Lady Gaga had a towel in her hand when she was finished taking a shower. O’Neil was with Lady Gaga during her 2010 Monster Ball world tour, and she claims that was barely awarded time for breaks, meals, or even sleep so that she could be available to the singer at all times of the day and night.

O’Neil’s job was supposed to pay $75,000 but she claims she was never paid overtime. She filed a lawsuit last week, claiming almost $380,000 in back pay. The lawsuit was filed against Lady Gaga’s company, Mermaid Touring, Inc. The former assistant also states that she was owed an estimated 7,168 hours of overtime. The employment lawsuit is also seeking unspecified damages.

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In Tennessee and all across the United States, employees with disabilities are supposed to be given reasonable accommodations that allow them to be able to work better according to the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, some companies fail to provide these accommodations and may even go as far as to fire an employee when they are asked to provide the accommodations for them. A recent lawsuit claims that Wal-Mart denied a twelve-year employee of its Tennessee distribution center a reasonable accommodation after he had cancer surgery which meant that he suffered weakness in his right shoulder. The lawsuit is also claiming that Wal-mart terminated him in retaliation for complaining about the company’s refusal to accommodate him.

This employee had been a successful forklift driver after his surgery. He had requested that Wal-mart not require him to cover a twenty minute break in the shipping department because it would require manual lifting. Wal-mart denied him the accommodation and discharged him. They claimed that he could not perform the essential functions of his job. The lawsuit was filed by the EEOC on the employee’s behalf after first trying to reach a pre-litigation settlement. This case was among the EEOC first lawsuits filed under the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008 or the ADAA.

According to the settlement, Wal-mart will pay $275,000 and has to agree to an eighteen month consent decree which prevents them from further failing to provide reasonable accommodations, absent undue hardship or failing to follow proper procedures for handling requests that deal with the ADA or ADAA. This decree also requires Wal-mart to provide anti-disability discrimination training to its management staff, maintain records of any accommodation requests and furnish them to the EEOC and post a notice to employees about the lawsuit that includes the EEOC’s contact information.

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According to a new lasuit, in August of 2011, David Sakich, Kevin Holton, Scott Jones and Todd Hammond as well as others facing a similar situation filed a suit against Sheriff Randall Boyce and the county under the Fair Labor Standards Act claiming that they were denied overtime as well as straight time pay and worked “off the clock.” They also claim they were retaliated against for bringing up the issue. Sakich and Holton also claim that they were demoted from positions as detective to patrol duty for whistle blowing activity. They later requested a preliminary injunction to prevent retaliation against others who may want to be a part of the lawsuit. Jeremy Beech, a maintenance worker joined the federal lawsuit two weeks later.

A federal judge has granted the detectives motion for a hearing on their preliminary injunction request as well as their motion for a case management conference in the lawsuit. The judge has told both sides to be prepared to present proof during the upcoming hearing, scheduled for January 5th, 2012, related to the factors the judge must weigh in considering the detectives motion for the injunction. The judge also stated that after the hearing if it is warranted, he will conduct a scheduling conference in the case.

However, the judge also told both sides of the case to discuss whether they will consent o have a U.S. magistrate judge conduct all further proceedings in the case, including trial and entry of a final judgment. The judge has also recommended that both sides become familiar with the judicial preferences of the judge before attending the scheduling conference.

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