PLUS Special Section

Deciphering wage and hour law

Panel discusses areas of growing concern

By Phil Zinkewicz

Recent revisions of the regulations governing exemptions from overtime for “white collar” employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the dramatic growth of multiple plaintiff and class action lawsuits under federal and state laws have made wage and hour law an even greater concern for employers.

At next month’s PLUS annual, one panel, titled “The New Frontier or the Wild West?”, will deal with this subject. Moderating the panel will be Paul Siegel, a partner in the law firm Jackson Lewis LLP.

The law firm is one of the leaders in advising employers on wage and hour issues. Siegel is head of Jackson Lewis’s Wage and Hour Practice Group. He has represented management in wage-hour, employment discrimination, affirmative action, and other workplace law matters since 1976. He regularly appears before federal and state agencies and courts, has appeared on national and local television and radio and at seminars, and has written articles in his areas of expertise.

A 2003 peer review survey identified Siegel as one of Long Island’s top 10 employment attorneys. He served as co-chair to the American Conference Institute’s annual “Wage & Hour Claims & Class Actions” conference in 2005 and was the featured speaker at a 2006 seminar on wage and hour collective actions held by the National Business Institute.

“Wage and hour litigation has become one of the most challenging areas for both corporate and Main Street America employers,” says Siegel. “Our panel will discuss practices that make employers easy targets for this type of litigation, including misclassification of workers, meal breaks, rest periods and other issues.

“Attendees will learn to identify practices and policies, or lack thereof, that make a company vulnerable to wage and hour lawsuits; explore trends in plaintiffs’ tactics for bringing wage and hour lawsuits; and identify the best practices for avoiding and successfully defending wage and hour lawsuits,” he explains.

Siegel says that regulations regarding wage-hour issues are extremely complex and difficult to read and understand.

“There is less certainty in the wage and hour arena,” he comments.

“There is less case law because few of the cases come to trial. The large number of plaintiffs involved in these lawsuits leads to settlements. One case involved 15,000 plaintiffs. That case will never go to trial. The discovery process itself would be enormous.”

Siegel gave some examples of recent wage-hour class actions:

• Pallini v. Delta Computer. National collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York State overtime pay claims brought on behalf of computer technicians who were seeking “regular rate” overtime payments rather than continued payment under the fluctuating work week method of “half time” pay.

• Conzo v. City of New York. A group of 311 operators were seeking overtime pay for alleged off-the-clock work, which they claimed should include certain supplemental payments.

• Delesline v. Dynamex. National collective action for overtime brought under state and federal law seeking compensation for off-the-clock and improper calculations of the regular rate of pay.

• White v. Eckerd. National class action for breach of contract based on company’s use of the fluctuating work week method of payment involving more than 15,000 employees.

• Bannen v. Liebert. National class action seeking overtime pay for service technicians.

Some of these cases have been settled and some will probably be settled, according to Siegel. “That’s why we have very little precedent,” he says. “There will be four people on my panel—all experts in the area of wage-hour issues. We are looking forward to it being a lively session.”