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Top Overtime Lawyer Reply: Can I Be Forced To Go To Meetings Without Being Paid?

On Behalf of | Jun 4, 2014 | Wage: Minimum Wage, Wage: Overtime, Wage: Tipped Employees |

Best Ohio Overtime Wage Attorney Answers: What should I do if my boss makes me go to meetings after work but does not pay me? Can my job keep me over my scheduled end time without paying me? Should I get paid overtime for extra hours that I work to go to training for my job? How do you find the best overtime wage lawyer in Ohio?

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The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires covered employers to pay non exempt employees at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. The key for today’s blog is the focus on the “all hours worked” part. Some bosses feel that the employer does not have to pay for nominal or non-regular work, such as meetings or training sessions. This is simply not true. The federal law contained at 29 CFR 785.27 expressly provides:

Attendance at lectures, meetings, training programs and similar activities need not be counted as working time if the following four criteria are met:

(a) Attendance is outside of the employee’s regular working hours;

(b) Attendance is in fact voluntary;

(c) The course, lecture, or meeting is not directly related to the employee’s job; and

(d) The employee does not perform any productive work during such attendance.

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Wage and hour employment laws make clear that all of these four criteria must be met. For example, even if the boss gives an option to you to select between three training seminars, but requires you to attend one, attendance is not voluntary, the second requirement (b) is not met, and you must be paid overtime. If the president or owner of a company sets up a voluntary meeting, but your direct supervisor says that everyone must go to show department strength, this is no longer voluntary and must be paid time. If your job has a regular Tuesday meeting at 4:45 p.m. that always runs 20 minutes past the end of the shift, none of the elements are met, and you must be paid overtime. These are only some of the many hypothetical examples.

Let’s look at a real consequence of a wage theft case. The Department of Labor (“DOL”) did an investigation of the payroll practices of Justiss Oil Co. Inc. And found that the company violated the overtime and record-keeping requirements contained in the FLSA because it failed to properly pay its employees for attendance at mandatory staff meetings. The DOL further found that Justiss violated FLSA requirements to record the time spent at the staff meetings. This is critical because many employees falsely believe that if they have not recorded their time that they have no claim or cannot prove damages when the reality is that it is the employer’s burden to record such time.

So what happened? As a result of the overtime wage and hour violations, Justiss is paying $619,830 in back wages to 270 current and former employees.

If you believe that your employer is not paying you all of your wages for all of your lawfully earned overtime compensation at a rate of one and half times your normal wages as requires under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act or Ohio Minimum Fair Wage Standards laws or you are an nonexempt employee that has been misclassified as exempt or independent contractor, contact the attorneys at Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm today for a free and confidential initial consultation. Or, maybe you are being misclassified as an independent contractor. The wage and hour lawyers at Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm will provide you with the best options for your overtime pay dispute situation. If you even think that you may be entitled to overtime pay that you are not being paid, call 866-797-6040.

Disclaimer:

The materials available at the top of this overtime, wage and hour web page and at this employment law website are for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. If you are still asking, “Am I entitled to overtime?”, “Does my job have to pay me for …”, “My paycheck is not right…” or “What do I do if…”, the your best option is to contact an Ohio overtime attorney to obtain advice with respect to FLSA questions or any particular employment law issue. Use and access to this employment law website or any of the links contained within the site do not create an attorney-client relationship. The legal opinions expressed at the top of this page or through this site are the opinions of the individual lawyer and may not reflect the opinions of Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm, Brian Spitz, or any individual attorney.

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