Hours work and the fair labor standards act study retail and wholesale trade
Human resources fsla
Human Resources FSLA Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is an act in the
United s that controls and executes compensation for extra working
durations. It has the duties of establishing whether an employee has a
claim against the employer for overtime and wage payment. Employees
under the FLSA have a duty of keeping proper records of all the overtime
hours (Calvasina et al, 2010). The act verifies whether an employee is
eligible or not for compensation of overtime hours, for over 40 hours.
The recompense for overtime is of a flat rate or at a rate of one and
half times more than the normal rate (Costa, 2000). There are exemptions
of compensation of the extra hours by the Act, meaning that not all
employees are appropriate for compensation by the Act.
Establishing if the employee has a potential FLSA claim
The worker in this case is eligible for compensation of the overtime
hours by the employer under the Act. From the scenario, there was denial
for the employee’s appeal for compensation by the department. The
department claims to have a policy where they do not consider overtime
where an employee is on duty during his off duty hours (Calvasina et al,
2010). Conversely, the worker works for extra hours so that he is able
to keep to the standards of his job description of top physical
conditioning. The extra hours by the worker, area benefits the company
too, because during the overtime hours the employee works for the good
of the employee, and not for his own bosom (Calvasina et al, 2010)
The legal basis for the conclusion
There are no legal exemptions by the Act against the employee in this
scenario, so the department should compensate him (Costa, 2000). The Act
vividly expounds overtime hours as time that one works when there are no
authoritative directions from the employer to do so. The employee in
this case toils for not certified operational extra hours; therefore,
the employee should get his compensation from the employer. (Scott,
2010)
Things the employer can do to evade claims
Employers can shun FLSA claims by guaranteeing that they consult with
the human resource team to ensure that they comply with the requirements
by the Act (Calvasina et al, 2010). This entails making sure that there
is the proper classification of all employees, to know whether the law
excludes the worker. The employee does this by asking some questions
relevant to the Act and carrying out tests where there is no
clarification about the exemption status (Costa, 2000).
The human resource department should ensure that they explain to the
employees about the Act so that they avoid scenarios where the employees
state to have claims, whereas there is none (Scott, 2010). Employers do
all that to ensure all employees aware of their rights, duties and
comprehend the law clearly. The third thing the employers can do is
consultation of an Attorney general who has apparent information about
the Act, so that he is in a position to enlighten them about its
requirement. This is an extremely specialized area, so the employer must
get detailed information about it to avoid claims (Calvasina et al,
2010).
The fourth thing is that the employee should be aware of all the
overtime hours and ensure that they are for the benefit of him, not for
the benefit of the employee. That means that performance of tasks during
the overtime hours should be significant to the employer and the
business. The last thing is ensuring the nonexempt’s do not carry out
any tasks during breaks; otherwise, there should be records to show that
it was overtime. This ensures that there is patent communication
regarding rules about overtime hours to avoid claims by employees
(Scott, 2010).
References
Scott, R. C. (2010). How on earth can you possibly ” file” an oral
complaint? An analysis of the boundaries of § 215(a) (3) of the fair
labor standards act. St. Johns Law Review, 84(4), p1543-1567, 25p.
Calvasina, g. E., Calvasina, r. V., & Calvasina, e. J. (2010).
Complying with the fair labor standards act (FLSA): a continuing legal
challenge for employers. Journal of Legal, Ethical & Regulatory
Issues, 13(1) p39-52, 14p.
Costa, D. L. (2000). Hours of work and the fair labor standards act: a
study of retail and wholesale trade. Journal of Legal, Ethical &
Regulatory Issues, 1938-1950. 648-664p.