FLSA Case Study

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) affects most public and private employment. The act requires employers to pay employees, who are not otherwise exempt, at least the federal minimum wage and overtime pay for more than 40 hours worked in a given workweek. The FLSA was originally established in 1934, but has been amended several times in order to make changes to the minimum wage requirements. The issue at hand is whether the employee should be compensated for the 36 hours of overtime associated with working out and conditioning and if on call time should be counted as overtime as well. I believe that despite the fact that being a member of SWAT requires great conditioning, the time used at the gym should not count as hours worked and thus should not be paid out as overtime. The employer most likely used the primary duty test in which they determined the primary duty of the job is not exercising in the gym,
Clearly Communicate That Non-Exempt Employees Will Be Paid For All Time Worked•Under the FLSA, non-exempt employees are entitled to be compensated for all work that the employer allows. The argument plaintiffs make in cases is that they did not record all of their time because they did not know that they were entitled to be compensated for all hours worked. Such a policy will give employees notice that they have a right to be compensated for their services, even if no prior approval was received for overtime.

2. Clearly Communicate That Non-Exempt Employees Must Record All Time Worked•Many cases center on the claim that management directed or otherwise pressured employees not to record all of their working hours. By enforcing a policy that non-exempt employees must record all time worked, employees will be on notice that management cannot force them to work off the clock. The employee must report all time worked even if the hours worked are not within the normal