Articles Posted in Minimum Wage

In this case, the employees of a Tennessee Sheriff’s office filed a class action lawsuit against their employer claiming they were not paid properly for all the hours they worked. The lawsuit also states that the employees were not compensated at the required rates of the Metro Pay Plan, which determines pay for civil service workers. The class action claim is an amendment to a federal lawsuit that was filed over a year ago by Michael Murphy, a correctional officer at the sheriff’s office from 2005 until April of this year.

The claim states that two hundred and forty sheriff’s office employees agreed to participle in the lawsuit. Vonda Noel who worked at detention centers and jails for the sheriff’s office since 2004 is now a plaintiff in the lawsuit with Murphy. The employees claim that they often worked overtime without getting paid during the “clearing count” process at the correctional facilities. The lawsuit also claims that the sheriff’s office often paid their employees hourly rates that were less than those required by the city’s pay plan.

In Tennessee and all across the United States, when employees go to work, they expect to be paid for all the hours they work. If they work any hours over forty in one week, then they are also entitled to receive overtime pay. Unfortunately, many companies and businesses find ways around giving their employees the overtime pay they deserve and many employers just fail to pay it completely. If you or someone you know has worked overtime hours but not received your overtime pay, then you should talk to a Tennessee employment overtime pay lawyer as soon as possible. They will work with you and make sure you get the pay that is rightfully yours.
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Tennessee employees and employees all across the United States work hard for their pay and many employees work long hours in order to receive overtime pay so that they can support their loved ones. Unfortunately, many companies and businesses still find reasons not to pay their employees the overtime pay they are entitled to by law. If you or someone you work with has worked overtime hours but failed to receive overtime pay, then you should talk with a Tennessee employment overtime pay lawyer right away.

In this lawsuit, TruGreen a lawn care company based in Memphis, Tennessee is being accused by more than 10,000 of its employees for underpaying its staff. The workers claim that they were not properly paid for overtime and that sometimes the company even paid them less than minimum wage.

The TruGreen company said in a statement that, “As a matter of company policy, we do not discuss the details of pending litigation, and we look forward to responding to this case through the legal process.” The lawsuit is seeking collective action status under the Fair Labor Standards Act which would mean that others could join the lawsuit. The lawsuit is also seeking three years of back pay and penalties for workers nationwide. According to the lawsuit, the company has recently changed its payroll practices. However, it is unclear if this is due to the fact that the violated the law or for another reason.
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In Tennessee and all over the United States, employees working in any business or position deserve overtime rights as well as minimum wage rights. Unfortunately, however, in some positions workers are not given these rights or protections. However, the White House and the federal government are working to change these rules. If you or someone you work with feel that you do not get the overtime and minimum wage rights you deserve or want to know how these changes may affect you, then you should talk to a Tennessee employment overtime and minimum wage lawyer right away. They will work with you to make sure you get the employment rights and compensation that you deserve.

The White House has announced a proposed rule to mend the Supreme Court’s decision in Coke by extending minimum wage and overtime protections to home health care workers who are employed by third party agencies. Before this decision, Coke, impacted hard working and low paid employees all across the country. Many home healthcare workers, who provide care for the elderly and disabled, were extremely underpaid for the work that they do because of a Fair Labor Standards Act exemption and Coke made this worse by extending this exemption to third party agencies. Coke was a harsh precedent because it crushed the Fair Labor Standards Act narrow construction of the exemption rule and it made a sub-class of low wage employees who could have suffered from wage abuse by third party agencies. The White House’s proposal to mend Coke’s decision is a great decision for these employees and other employees in similar situations all across the country.
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In Tennessee and all across the country, employees are entitled to the proper wage amounts for their specific job. Unfortunately, many companies and businesses find ways around these wage requirements by misclassifying their employees or keeping improper records of payment. If you or someone you work with feels that your rights to a certain wage have been violated, then you should speak with a Tennessee employment lawyer as soon as possible. They will hear your case and work with you to make sure you get the compensation you are entitled to by law.

According to this case, The U.S. Department of Labor stated on December 14th, 2011, that “35 franchised hotels and motels, including eleven in Middle Tennessee, violated minimum wage, overtime and other labor laws during the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.” The Department also said that those businesses received fines and they owed $14,552 and the agency was able to recover more than $173,000 in wages which were owed to two hundred and eighty-three employees. These business violations included charging employees excessive room and board if they also lived on the property and paying housekeepers by the number of rooms they cleaned. These violations led to these employees receiving less than $7.25 minimum wage. They also only paid employees regular pay or “straight” pay for all the hours they worked, including overtime, and failed to pay for hours that temporary employees worked. Some of the hotels and motels also misclassified their employees as independent contractors which denied them their wage rights according to federal law.

These citations were part of a multi-year enforcement initiative which focused on Tennessee’s hotel and motel industry during which the U.S. Department of Labor found, “found widespread noncompliance with the minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.” Ten hotels and motels in Nashville were cited and also one in Smyrna.
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Some companies and businesses find ways around paying their employees the wages they deserve by paying their employees and then not keeping records of it or failing to pay them overtime pay. According to a recent case, The U.S. Labor Department stated that more than $1 million in back wages has been recovered for two hundred and ninety-five gas station workers after they investigated and found that the gas stations were not compliant with the regulations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, specifically minimum wage and overtime pay requirements. The Fair Labor Standards Act district director of the federal Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division stated that only twenty-five percent of the gas stations were compliant with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The investigation by the U.S. Labor Department discovered violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act such as paying below the federal minimum wage of 7.25 an hour and not receiving time and half rates of pay when working more than forty hours in a single workweek. Finally, they also discovered that some employees were being paid “off the books”.

The executive director for the Gasoline C-Store Automotive Association stated that gas station employers are not trying to cheat their workers out of proper paid but that they just need lessons in correct bookkeeping according to federal law. In this case, the employees as a result of its investigation was able to recover a total of $ 1,014,895 for workers during the 2011 fiscal year.
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According to this lawsuit, two men who worked on the movie “Black Swan” are challenging the industry’s accepted unpaid internship policy by claiming that Fox Searchlight Pictures, the production company for the movie, had their interns do basic work that should have been done by paid employees and they also claim that the company did not provide them with any type of educational experience that labor rules require in order to exempt employers from paying their interns.

The lawsuit also states that, “In misclassifying many of its workers as unpaid interns, Fox Searchlight has denied them the benefits that the law affords to employees.” One of the plaintiffs’s Alex Footman, worked on “Black Swain” from October 2009 until February 2010 and claims his responsibilities included preparing coffee for the office, making sure the coffee pot was full, taking and handing out lunch orders to the production staff, cleaning the office and taking out the trash. The other plaintiff, Eric Glatt, claimed he prepared documents for purchase orders and petty cash, traveled to the set to get signatures on documents, and created spreadsheets to track missing information in an employee’s file.

The lawsuit is seeking class action for what the plaintiffs claim were more than one hundred unpaid interns on various Fox Searchlight Productions. The lawsuit is also seeking back pay under federal and state minimum wage laws and seeking an injunction barring Fox Searchlight from improperly using unpaid interns. Russell Nelson, a Fox Searchlight spokesman, said, “We just learned of this litigation and have not had a chance to review it so we cannot make any comment at this time.”
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In Tennessee and all across the country, when employees go to work each day and work hard, they expect to get paid for the hours they work and expect that their workplace will follow federal laws and guidelines. However, sometimes businesses find ways around paying their employees for the hours they work and may not even follow federal laws considering the hours in which minors are allowed to work. If you or someone you know has worked overtime hours and failed to receive overtime pay, then you should talk to a Tennessee labor overtime lawyer right away. They will hear your case and make sure you get the compensation you are entitled to by law.

In this case, a restaurant chain known as This is It! BBQ and Seafood has been ordered by the federal government to provide $104,000 in back pay to two hundred and thirty of its workers at five locations and was fined $1,900 for allowing minors to work later than allowed by federal law. This action was taken after the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division nvestigated the chain restaurant and discovered violations of minimum wage, overtime pay, and record keeping provisions of Fair Labor Standards Act. The investigation found that the company improperly classified employees as being exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act and failed to pay them time and a half for hours worked over forty in one work week.

The investigators determined that the employees were not paid minimum wage because the company deducted uniform expenses and lunch breaks. They also discovered that workers who were younger than sixteen were being permitted to work later than 9 p.m. between June 1st and Labor Day and later than 7 p.m. at other times of the year violating federal restrictions for younger workers. Finally, the investigation discovered that the company also failed to keep accurate records of tips earned and hours worked violating the Fair Labor Standards Act record-keeping regulations.

Owner Shelly Anthony did not comment but the company agreed to maintain future compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act by keeping accurate records and paying full and proper wages for all hours worked.
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