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AVOIDING FLSA LEGAL LANDMINES:
How Employers Can Avoid Penalties & Back Pay Liabilities
(Originally Presented On Thursday, April 28, 2005)
Order a CD Recording!
Background
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record-keeping, and child labor standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in federal, state, and local governments.
In the 2004 fiscal year, the Department of Labor (DOL) collected more than $196 million in back wages for FLSA violations. This number will most likely increase in 2005 as a result of the new Fair Pay Rules, which became effective August 23, 2004, and strengthened overtime rights for 6.7 million American workers.
That's where AHI can help. We have teamed up with FLSA expert Mitchell Quick, Esq., to present a 90-minute audio conference titled:
AVOIDING FLSA LEGAL LANDMINES:
How Employers Can Avoid Penalties & Back Pay Liabilities
Order a CD Recording!
This conference answers tricky questions like:
When, if ever, can you deduct from an exempt employee's pay?
How many sick days are required for a company to have a "reasonable sick day policy" to allow it to deduct pay from absent exempt employees?
If a company closes for a holiday, can you require employees to work the day before in order to get paid for the holiday?
Does a company have to pay the full salary of exempt employees when they are absent and their leave banks have been exhausted?
When does the employer have to pay for time spent in training, traveling, and preparing for the job?
Who Should "Listen In"
Anyone who makes decisions regarding compensation policies should attend this conference. Suggested participants include:
• Payroll administrators
• HR professionals/directors
• Controllers
• CFOs
• Accountants
• Small business owners
Conference Outline:
 EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP — Which workers are covered by the FLSA
• What is the employment relationship
• Independent contractors
• Interns and trainees
• Home-workers
FLSA EXEMPTIONS — Classifying employees correctly as exempt or non-exempt
• Synopses of the most common exemption categories under regulation 541 (incorporates the new regulations)
• Avoiding employer actions that can jeopardize a regulation 541 exemption
• What happens when a non-exempt employee has been incorrectly classified as exempt
• When an employer can — and cannot — legally deduct from an exempt employee’s pay, including:
• Company closings (due to inclement weather, planned full- or partial-week closings)
• Full-day absences after sick or paid-time off allotment has been exhausted
• FMLA
• FLSA impact on deductions from exempts’ paid-time-off banks for partial-day absences
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Q&A — Specific Questions Posed To Our Expert
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HOURS WORKED ISSUES — What counts as “time worked”
• Calculating hours worked
• What is the de minimis rule (clock–rounding)
• Avoiding typical problem areas for calculating working time, including:
• meetings
• training programs
• preparatory and concluding activities
• travel time
• meal periods
MINIMUM WAGE/PAYMENT OF WAGES — How to make sure minimum wage is assured
• Effects of employee work-related expense deductions on minimum wage requirement
• Special minimum wage rules for tipped employees and commissioned employees
• State law mandates for final paychecks
• Payout of vacation and sick time required by state law
OVERTIME COMPENSATION — How to correctly compute overtime
• Principles of overtime standards, including defining a workweek
• Exceptions to the basic requirements for overtime under regulation 778
• Common practices that result in OT violations
• "Comp time" plans — are they legal?
• How commission, piece-rate, job rate, salary, and daily rate compensation plans affect OT liability
• Effects of bonuses, commissions, and non-cash rewards on computing the base rate for OT
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Q&A — Specific Questions Posed To Our Expert
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Featured Speaker:
 Mitchell Quick, Esq., is a partner in the law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich. His practice includes all aspects of management, labor, and employment law, with an emphasis on employment discrimination litigation, wrongful discharge, and wage and hour legal issues.
HRCI Credits:
 This program has been approved for 1.5 recertification credit hours toward PHR and SPHR recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI). For more information about certification or recertification, please visit the HRCI homepage at www.hrci.org.
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