In recent years many employers have implemented mandatory arbitration agreements to require that legal disputes with employees be decided by a neutral arbitrator, rather than by jury trial.  Arbitration agreements are coming under scrutiny as unfairly preventing employees from having their “day in court” and having access to jury trials – most recently with the

In Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc v. Hewitt, an en banc U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 12-6 ruling last year finding that a highly paid offshore supervisor (who was paid more than $200,000 per year on a day rate basis) was entitled to overtime premium pay because he was not paid

Late Tuesday afternoon, March 24, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued guidance in the form of 14 questions and answers on the new COVID-19 leave act.   Here is the link to the latest guidance. Some of the highlights are described below.

Although practitioners and commentators uniformly agreed that the act

The Trump Administration has released the new proposed rule changes to the salary requirements to be exempt from the overtime pay requirement under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Under the new proposed rule, the U.S. Department of Labor wants to increase the minimum salary threshold that must be paid in order for most executive,

In May the United States Supreme Court issued a long-awaited decision in a trio of cases that concerned whether employers can lawfully use mandatory arbitration agreements containing provisions that preclude employees from pursuing employment claims on a class action basis – and instead require them to pursue their claims in an individual private arbitration proceeding

A recent story from New Orleans demonstrates that overtime violations can be costly.  In the case of a New Orleans bakery that paid employees for overtime at their straight time rate and paid some workers in cash, the issue cost the employer over $125,000 in back wages alone.  Pursuant to the federal Fair Labor Standards

Yesterday, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) Wage and Hour Division released a preview copy of a request for information (“RFI”) before issuing revised proposed overtime exemption regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The RFI is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register today, July 26, 2017, which will start a 60-day public comment

In the recent case of Halle v. Galliano Marine Service, L.L.C., No. 16-30558, 2017 WL 1399697 (5th Cir. Apr. 19, 2017) the U.S. Fifth Circuit addressed for the first time whether ROV technicians, who are traditionally Jones Act seamen, qualify as seamen under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The Court found that the