As we continue marching toward D-day on the Department of Labor’s new overtime rules kicking in, the rules are facing last minute challenges from all angles. First, states and private businesses pushed back. In late September, 21 states jointly filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas asking that the court block the DOL
University Student Assistants Are Employees Under NLRA
On August 23, 2016, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision in The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York and Graduate Workers of Columbia-GWC, UAW. The NLRB decided that graduate and undergraduate student assistants are common law “employees” within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Ninth Circuit Weighs In On Class Action Waivers
A new decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit continues to leave employers uncertain as to the enforceability of class action waivers in arbitration agreements. The Seventh and Ninth Circuits are on one side of the issue, and the Second, Fifth, Eighth, and Eleventh Circuits on the other. The Seventh and
NLRB Revises Back Pay Formula
In a 3-1 ruling, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) recently revised its back pay formula and radically departed from its traditional remedy for compensating employees who have been unlawfully terminated. The Board’s ruling now supports employees’ rights to recover search-for-work and interim employment expenses, regardless of whether the employees have interim earnings and regardless
A Collective Bargaining Agreement That Provides For Premium Rates For Overtime Hours Worked Is Not Subject To The Same Overtime Pay Obligations Defined By California Labor Code Section 510
By: Duyen T. Nguyen
In George Vranish, Jr. et al. v. Exxon Mobil Corporation, 2014 DJDAR 761, January 23, 2014, the Court upheld the terms of a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) which set forth overtime pay for Exxon Mobil’s employees. Pursuant to the CBA, Plaintiffs were paid at the overtime premium rate of 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek or over 12 hours in a workday but were not paid overtime for hours worked between the eighth and twelfth hour in a workday. Thus, Plaintiffs argued that they were not paid premium compensation for all “overtime hours worked” as required under Labor Code section 510. That section provides that any work in excess of eight hours in one workday is compensated at 1.5 times the regular rate of pay for an employee and any work in excess of 12 hours in one day is compensated at 2 times the regular rate of pay for an employee.Continue Reading A Collective Bargaining Agreement That Provides For Premium Rates For Overtime Hours Worked Is Not Subject To The Same Overtime Pay Obligations Defined By California Labor Code Section 510