In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (commonly referred to as the “FLSA”). The purpose of the Depression era legislation was to protect the individual employee against abusive employers and to ensure a minimum standard of living to the American worker. FLSA guarantees workers a federal minimum wage and overtime pay for employees who work over 40 hours a week.
Expanding FLSA Over the Years
Over the years, FLSA has been expanded to include other areas of employee protections, such as restrictions on employing children, and employee documentation and recordkeeping. In recent months, the US Department of Labor released an “Administrative Interpretation” (AI) to clarify the definition of “clothes” under the FLSA.
The Definition of “Clothing”
Currently, the FLSA excludes time spent “changing clothes or washing” at the start or end of a workday from compensable time, and the vague exemption has led to many lawsuits and conflicting court decisions on what constitutes ‘clothes.’ The AI provides clarity by stating that the time spent changing into or out of protective gear or equipment required by law, the employer, or the nature of the job, is indeed compensable.
The AI further clarifies that even if ‘changing clothes’ does not fall under a compensable activity or time, it may still trigger the ‘continuous workday rule’ if the subsequent activities after changing clothes would be compensable under FLSA, activities such as walking, waiting, or other travel time. Employers should review their compensation policies or practices to reflect this change to remain compliant with the law.
The guidelines covered by the FLSA can be confusing, and costly, if not adhered to. Speak with a CPEhr HR Consultant for an audit of your FLSA practices.
Source: EPLI Pro News, July 2010
Last month, CPEhr’s Training Manager Linda Robinson presented a webinar entitled “How To Legally Interview Employees”. In this webinar she reviewed the entire interview process, from identifying candidates, to legally compliant interview questions, to proper follow-up etiquette (the webinar can be found on CPEhr’s corporate website). In this post we briefly list the top 4 tips to consider when interviewing and hiring the most qualified candidates:
The summer is here and your kids are out of school. So, you invite your 13 year old son to help you out around the office, or your 14 year old daughter to take sales orders over the phone. Sounds innocent enough, right? Wrong!
What do people and businesses have in common? For starters, no two are alike. Just like individuals have their own personal challenges, likes, dislikes and personality traits, so too do organizations. Each has its own challenges, profit centers, strengths and weaknesses. It is for that reason that when a company is looking for a business solution – in any discipline – it is crucial to receive a customized program that matches their unique needs.
With the summer in full swing, employees must prepare themselves for the heat. And we’re not just talking sun-hats and water bottles here. Incidents related to the heat account for one of the highest workplace injuries causes as reported by OSHA. OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Association) clearly outlines an employers responsibility to help protect their employees from heat-related injuries.
Guest post by Linda Robinson, PHR, CPEhr Training Manager