Local bag company learns an expensive lesson on wage and hour compliance

A federal judge has ordered American Made Bags to pay $189,756 to a group of 48 employees, half as unpaid wages and half as liquidated damages.

The allegations that came to light in two separate Department of Labor investigations that date back to 2014 include the misclassification of employees as independent contractors, the payment of the employees' regular rate instead of the statutorily required time and half rate for overtime hours, and the failure to keep records of amounts paid to employees. 

The wage and hour risks of rounding

"Iraene" asks the following question on the Antiwork subreddit.

I was told to round down or round up my time. So if I start work at 7:55 I need to put 8. If I work 37 minutes, I should round down to 30, instead of 45 because this is a common business practice. Is this normal? I have entered exact times on the card and into ADP so idk why it's a problem now.

While this practice as explained appears to be legal, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea for the employer, at least according to this employment lawyer. 

Let me explain.

The time has come to limit the overuse and overbreadth of noncompetition agreements

It's been nearly five years since I asked this question: "Is your non-compete agreement killing a fly with a sledgehammer?" Now it seems that the federal government is asking the same question.

Yesterday, the Treasury Department published its report, "The State of Labor Market Competition" (as reported by The New York Times). The report sought to answer to investigate the effects of a lack of labor market competition on our country's labor market and answer whether that lack of competition hurts labor markets.

One of the key issues the report addresses is the impact of the overuse of noncompetitive agreements and other post-employment restrictive covenants. The report calls for laws or regulations to limit the use and impact of these agreements.

THIS is why craft breweries need to pay very close attention to labor unions

It was a simple question posed in the Craft Beef Professionals Facebook group: "Conversations on fair compensation are extremely important in our industry. What is a brewery that impresses you with the way they treat their team?" 

Out of the dozens of responses, this one should scare the hell out of any craft brewery owner: 

The IWW is looking into this and the other plethora of issues we face as workers in this industry. Reach out to brewing@iww.org if you're interested in creating a better work environment near you.

When I scream at the top of my lungs to craft breweries that they need to pay attention to union organizing, this is why.

WIRTW #616: the “cocktail” edition

Have you heard about Pravda Brewery, in Lviv, Ukraine. It has stopped producing craft beer and instead is making Molotov cocktails for the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces.

Yuri Zastavny, the brewery's owner, told Fox News that he and his workers decided to use their knowledge of chemistry, skills, supplies, and labor to contribute to the fight.

"Once we understand what can come through beer — because it’s no time for beer, we need to get other things sorted out — we decided to make Molotov cocktails because we can use bottles, we can use the people, and it was a grassroots idea." 

Zastavny added, "If you can brew, then you can make Molotov cocktails."

This is most definitely not what I had in mind when I decided to become a beer lawyer.

Here's what I read this past week that I think you should be reading, too.

Brewery CEO out after backlash to controversial vaccine comments

Vaccine mandates are a crime against humanity.

If you are not speaking out against them, you are a conspirator.

Those are the words Josh Stylman, the co-founder and now former CEO of Brooklyn, New York's Threes Brewing, recently shared on his personal Twitter account. He's also compared vaccine mandates to Jim Crow laws, the Nazi regime, and other historical atrocities. 

I’m not quite ready to declare the pandemic over, but I am ready to stop writing about it every single day

Nearly two years ago, I re-branded the Ohio Employer Law Blog as the Coronavirus Law Blog. It was a bit of marketing combined with the realization that Covid would be all that mattered to employers, at least in the short term.

That "short term" will turn two years old in nine days.

Today, however, I am officially re-re-branding the blog back to the Ohio Employer Law Blog.