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Fair Labor Standards Act Case Study

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The Fair Labor Standards Act faces many issues surrounding compensatory time. The first issue surrounds the usefulness of the time off plan. The Department of Labors’ Field Operations Handbook 32j16b suggests that to comply with the FLSA and to continue to pay a fixed wage or salary each pay period, even though the employee works OT in some week or weeks within the pay period, the employer lays off the employee a sufficient number of hours during some other week or weeks of the pay period to offset the amount of OT worked so that the desired wage or salary for the pay period covers the total amount of compensation, including OT compensation, due the employee under the FLSA for each work week taken separately. The plan may use a standard number …show more content…
For this reason, a time off plan cannot be applied to a salaried employee who is paid a fixed salary to cover all hours he may work in any particular w/w or pay period. The issues with the “time off plan are: Fixed wage or salary" employers can forget about this for regular hourly workers who normally work variable hours and receive variable pay. Also because the Texas Payday Law requires non-exempt employees to be paid at least twice per month (section 61.011(b)), using the time-off plan would be limited on a practical basis to a two-week pay period. Next, since the provision calls for both overtime hours worked and time off to be in the same pay period, the only time an employer could take advantage of this plan would be if the overtime were worked in week one of a two-week pay period, so that the time off could be granted in week 2. Also, time off would have to be granted at time and a half, not straight time. Additionally, many employers do not have the luxury of being able to "lay an employee off" for any amount of time, much less for 1 1/2 times the amount of overtime worked in a previous …show more content…
For public employers, the basic authorization to pay compensatory time in lieu of cash for overtime appears in Section 207(o) of the FLSA, which provides the following in subsection (2)(A): A public agency may provide compensatory time under paragraph (1) only-- (A) pursuant to-- (i) applicable provisions of a collective bargaining agreement, memorandum of understanding, or any other agreement between the public agency and representatives of such employees; or (ii) in the case of employees not covered by sub clause (i), an agreement or understanding arrived at between the employer and employee before the performance of the work. This means that the agreement is formed by the public employer telling the employees they will be paid for overtime with compensatory time off, and the employees agree by staying employed, instead of quitting, as they would have a right to do. It is not really a choice for those who want to remain employed with that public employer. The Department of Labor interprets that provisions stating that compensatory time off in lieu of cash overtime payments must be made freely and without coercion or pressure. In U.S Supreme Court Case Christensen v. Harris County, 529 U.S. 576, 120 S.Ct. 1655, 1656 (2000). County employees were required to use their accrued compensatory time if the total accrued amount approached the

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