Three Steps for Immunizing Your

Company From Overtime Suits

Alan Rupe (/authors/421-alan-rupe/articles)
May 16, 2006
If lawyers who represent employees against employersplaintiffs attorneyswere rats in
a maze, they would get to the cheese faster than a politician gets to a handshake.
Plaintiffs lawyers are maze-wise. They know how the system works. They know that if
they can create factual issues of "he said, she said," throw in some "David and Goliath"
pathos and skip past the trapdoors leading to legal issues, they will most likely get their
client in front of a jury. And that leads to dollars in their pockets, either through settlement
(because many employers would rather settle than go through a lengthy, painful trial) or
through a substantial dollar award by a jury.
Given the U.S. Department of Labors newest regulations and the fact that the number of
collective actions filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act now exceed all other types of
employment collective actions combined, the rats are after one big hunk of cheese.
Remember that juries decide questions of fact. And an employees FLSA claim is chock-
full of these questions.
Think of the employee who testifies that in spite of the companys handbook rules
regarding overtime and the prominent time clock posted on the break room wall, employees
routinely worked "off the clock" because there was so much work to do. Or the employer
who delegated a supervisor to ensure employee compliance with overtime rules, but looked
the other way when payroll budgets were too high and production levels were low.
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There is no easy fix to eliminate a hungry lawyer on the prowl for a good plaintiff case,
but some simple steps taken early on, and consistently followed, can help barricade entry to
the employers checkbook.
First, employers must keep in mind that there are only a handful of exceptions to the rule
that employees should receive hourly pay, with time and a half for overtime.
My first rule? Have three sets of eyes scrutinize any exception to hourly pay. The
companys corporate management, human resources administrator and legal department or
outside counsel should sign off on every situation that falls outside the hourly pay standard.
Second, audit your companys pay practices, frequently. Regularly re-examine each job
position: Review the positions job description, the employee performance and evaluation
form, and the pay scale for that position, all with the objective of a fair, impartial evaluation
as to whether the position is truly exempt or nonexempt. Use someone with a fresh eye to
conduct the audit, not the person who originally designated the position as exempt.
Third, employers should develop a culture of fairness and good faith in dealing with
employees. Avoid the trap of demanding mammoth output goals be accomplished within a
40-hour workweek, encouraging employees to work longer hours without overtime pay to
meet quota.
Coach and counsel, discipline and document all occasions when employees are
discovered working off the clock. And save a copy of each of those disciplinary actions in a
"plaintiffs attorneys will never take advantage of me" file. When an allegation comes along
that the company has allowed a policy of encouraging employees to work off the clock to
flourish, just reach for that file. Youve made your defense lawyers job infinitely easier, and
less costly.
An employers good faith can also be established through well-drafted, even-handed and
consistently enforced company policies. Employers can also ask the U.S. Department of
Labor for a written ruling, approval or interpretation of a particular positions pay status. An
employers good faith application of a particular action because of such a ruling is an
absolute defense to a minimum wage and/or overtime claim.
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By following just a few pre-emptive and proactive procedures to monitor its pay practices,
a company can stop even the hungriest maze-wise plaintiffs lawyers in their tracks.
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