With the new overtime rules DOA, what now for employers?

Yesterday I promised myself a blogging vacation until after the Thanksgiving holiday. And then Judge Amos L. Mazzant III dropped the biggest employment law story of the year by enjoining the DOL’s new overtime rules.

My 5th grade daughter just completed two long-term school projects—a comprehensive book report celebrating a Newbery Medal winner (she chose Shiloh), and a scientific study of a native Ohio bird (she chose the wild turkey). They were due within two days of each other, and she had several weeks to complete each. We sat down with her school planner and mapped out reasonable due dates for each piece of each project, so that she would not get slammed at the end. With her busy music schedule, this lesson in non-procrastination was vital to her completing the projects on time (which she did).

I hope she doesn’t read this post, because I don't want her ever to think procrastinators win. Nevertheless, employers who procrastinated in preparing for the new overtime rules are feeling pretty good right about now.

BREAKING: Federal judge grants nationwide preliminary injunction against FLSA overtime rule

Consider this the judicial equivalent of a Hail Mary, or full-court buzzer beater, or a bottom-of-the-9th, 2-out grand slam.

Judge Amos L. Mazzant III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has just issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the DOL’s impending December 1 change to the FLSA’s white-collar salary test.

Dropping some wage and hour wisdom on turkey giveaways

One law firm for which I used to work provided each staff member an annual Thanksgiving turkey as a holiday thank you to its employees. With the hindsight of two decades of employment-law experience, here’s my question—should the fair market value of that turkey been included in the employees’ regular rate of pay? Because if it was, the company would have to include its value in the calculation of employees’ overtime rates.

Some workplace haiku to start your week #haikuatwork

Lately, the news has been so grim, with elections, and overtime rules, and data breaches, and federal agencies that over-step and over-reach. I figured, why not start the holiday week with some levity.

Cleveland’s Fox 8 recently published a list of workplace haiku. Here are some of my favorites:

WIRTW #439 (the “Texas teardrops” edition)

It’s been a bad week for the Department of Labor in Texas, and it could get a whole lot worse before the month is over.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings issued a permanent injunction preventing the DOL from implementing its controversial persuader rule.

Also this week, the Texas federal judge hearing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s challenge to the DOL’s impending overtime rule change (set to take effect Dec. 1) announced that he will issue a ruling by Nov. 22 on whether to enjoin the new white-collar salary threshold. Stay tuned.

If both cases go employers’ way, the DOL will definitely be crying Texas tears over its Thanksgiving turkey.


Here’s what else I read this week:

Federal judge takes NLRB to task for rules that protect racist and sexist workplace misconduct

Of all of the decisions the NLRB has handed down in the past eight years, those that let striking employees lob racists and sexist bombs at replacement workers crossing picket lines are the most offensive to me.

Consolidated Communications v. NLRB (D.C. Cir. 9/13/16) is one such case.

More compelling than the decision, however, is the concurring opinion written by Judge Patricia Millett, in which she calls on the NLRB to carry out its mission to protect the rights of all employees, not just those who happen to be walking a picket line. How can a picket line magically convert misconduct that is “illegal in every other corner of the workplace” into the “unpleasantries that are just part and parcel of the contentious environment and heated language that ordinarily accompany strike activity,” she asks? 

The newest threat to your cybersecurity? Your lunchroom appliances

Dinner is always a bit of cluster in my house. We are a home of two working parents, and, with music lessons and band rehearsals three nights a week, it seems that we are always scrambling for our evening meal. More often than not, we end up eating out, which is neither good for our wallets nor our waistlines.