Employment

Fired for Medical Issues? Talk to a Medical Leave Attorney

An employer will sometimes decide to “cut its losses” and terminate an employee who is perceived as taking too much time off for medical or family reasons.  Many people are surprised to…

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Is Overtime Pay Required in Texas and Other OT FAQs

Is overtime pay required in Texas? Federal law requires most workers to be paid at least time and a half their regular rate of pay for each hour they work over 40…

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Texas Court Certifies Oilfield Overtime Collective Action

A federal district judge in Texas recently granted a motion for conditional certification in an unpaid overtime case brought by oilfield workers.  The case was filed by several former employees of Select…

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Deductions Prevent Summary Judgment in Unpaid Overtime Case

Employers sometimes deduct monies from their salaried employees’ paychecks for various reasons.  These deductions can prove costly in unpaid overtime lawsuits, as a recent opinion issued by a federal judge in Dallas,…

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Court Denies Arbitration in Unpaid Overtime Case

Employers sometimes make their employees sign arbitration agreements in an effort to discourage claims for unpaid overtime.  A federal court in Houston, Texas recently denied a defendant’s attempt to compel arbitration in…

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FLSA Defendant Fails to Moot Case By Money Tender

Employers who are sued for overtime violations sometimes attempt to resolve the case by tendering money to the plaintiff and claiming that, since the Plaintiff has been paid, the case is now…

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Texas Court On Employer’s Failure to Keep Pay Records in FLSA Case

What happens when an employer fails to maintain accurate records of the hours worked by its employers and is sued for unpaid overtime?  It usually does not end well for the employer,…

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Overtime Pay Upheld to Workers Misclassified as Independent Contractors

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently affirmed an award of overtime pay to workers that were misclassified as independent contractors.  The Court upheld the trial court’s ruling…

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Independent Contractor or Employee?

I am often asked the question by clients, “Am I an employee or an independent contractor?”  All too often, the answer to this question is that my client has been misclassified as…

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How to Recover Unpaid Overtime

You may be wondering how to get back overtime pay.  To recover overtime pay that a current or former employer owes you, you generally have two choices.  You can file a complaint…

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Are Assistant Managers Due Overtime Pay?

Many assistant managers are told that they are exempt from overtime pay.  Assistant managers are often required to work long hours without any compensation other than “straight time” or their base salary. …

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What About My Bonus? Enforcing Bonus Promises to Oilfield Workers

Across Texas (in West Texas in the Permian Basin and in South Texas in the Eagle Ford Shale, particularly) and in many other parts of the country, oil and gas production is…

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Texas Law Aims to Deter Worker Misclassification in Construction Industry

Texas lawmakers are attempting to get tough on construction companies that commit payroll fraud by misclassifying construction workers, passing a new law recently signed by Gov. Rick Perry. As I have previously…

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Texas Oil Boom Continues, Raising More Overtime Pay Issues

A new report shows that oil and gas wells continue to increase in Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale. According to a new quarterly report of oil and gas wells from a…

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Court finds CEO personally liable for overtime pay violations

On July 9, 2012, the Second Circuit held that a CEO of a supermarket chain could be personally liable for FLSA claims made by employees of his company. See Irizarry v. Catsimatidis,…

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Court Rules on “Regular Rate” Meaning in Overtime Pay Case

The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) governs overtime pay in Texas. In a nutshell, the FLSA requires that employers pay their non-exempt employees one-and-a-half times their “regular rate” for every hour worked…

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Are Call Center Employees Entitled to Overtime Pay?

Call center employees are often required to work more than forty hours per week. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, employers are required to pay most workers one and a…

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You Were Laid Off – What Are Your Legal Rights?

Every day it seems that there is another local headline of significant layoffs by a company trying to increase its profits.  Even in Texas, where the economy has been stronger than elsewhere,…

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Are Inspectors Due Unpaid Overtime?

As a general matter, employers are required to pay one and a half times a worker’s ordinary rate for every hour worked in excess of forty per week, unless the worker is…

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What is Overtime?

What is overtime? Many employees have questions about overtime. This post is intended to answer the most basic questions, which are what is overtime, who is eligible for overtime, and how to…

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