Un-“PAID” Is a Better Option

Last week the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) unveiled its new Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program to facilitate resolution of potential overtime and minimum wage violations under the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA). Below you will find the highlights of the program and our advice and recommendations on compliance.

WHD will implement this “self-audit pilot program nationwide for approximately six months” to begin in April. At the end of the six month pilot period, WHD will determine whether to make the program permanent. In the meantime, as your team contemplates this opportunity, we recommend you keep WHD’s stated goal in mind: “To ensure that more employees receive the back wages they are owed – faster.”

All FLSA-covered employers are eligible to participate in the program on a voluntary basis. The program covers potential violations of the FLSA’s overtime and minimum wage requirements including, for example, violations based on alleged “off-the-clock” work; failures to pay overtime at one-and-one-half times the regular rate of pay;  misclassification of employees as exempt from the FLSA’s minimum wage; and overtime requirements.

There are some attractive elements to the program. It enables employers to expeditiously resolve inadvertent minimum wage and overtime violations without litigation (perhaps—see below), without the payment of liquidated damages, and without civil monetary penalties. That certainly sounds attractive but there is a catch or two or three… .

For many employers, the downside of this program will outweigh the upside. For example:

• This program does not require employees to surrender any rights.
• If an employee chooses not to accept back payment, the employee will not release any private right of action.
• If the employee chooses to accept the back payment, the employee will not grant a broad release of potential claims under the FLSA.
• By allowing employers to participate in the program, WHD does not waive its right to conduct any future investigations of the employer.
• The participating employer must pay 100% of the calculated back wages immediately, no exceptions.
• An employer’s DOL-supervised settlement under this program does not necessarily prevent state law wage claims.

All FLSA-covered employers nationwide confront the same critical question: Does the PAID program reduce risk or increase exposure for your company? Our experience tells us that many employers will be better off conducting their own Audit outside the PAID program and under the attorney/client protection. Certainly, it would be prudent for all employers to conduct an Audit of pay practices to assess compliance under the FLSA and state wage and hour laws. Our employment law crystal ball identified these issues a few years back and led us to develop our very popular FLSA Wage and Hour and Timekeeping Audit Service and our Exempt or Non-Exempt Positions Classification Service. You can achieve compliance without the PAID program pitfalls. Please let us know how we can help. www.foleylawpractice.com or call 508.548.4888

 

In some jurisdictions this blog post is regarded as Attorney advertisement.

Equal Pay Is Coming Your Way

Less than a handful of states do not have laws that prohibit gender-based compensation discrimination, and the federal pay equity laws have been on the books for years. California, New York and Massachusetts seem to be competing to have the most aggressive pay equity laws, with other states in the race. While this alert focuses on Massachusetts, we are happy to answer questions about your state’s equal pay laws or the federal law.

Is your company covered by the new Massachusetts pay equity law? Yes, all employers in Massachusetts with the noted exception of the federal government are covered by the new law: for-profit; not-for-profit; large and small; in all industry sectors. Unlike most employment laws, the number of individuals employed is not relevant – your company is covered.

The assessment of gender-based pay inequity in Massachusetts has changed significantly. The standard is different. The definitions are different. Exposure is different. Potential corrective measures are different. Defenses are different. The conversation about salary history and employee wages will be significantly different.

Many find that the guidance recently issued by the Massachusetts Attorney General raised as many questions as it answered. The good news is that the Attorney General’s guidance includes a basic self-evaluation tool for employers. We recommend using outside counsel as part of this process to protect your findings under the attorney-client privilege. Think of our Pay Equity Audit as a protective cloak: it shields any pay inequities you may discover, and will allow your team to make reasonable progress eliminating pay disparities without creating other distractions.

In less than four months, the Massachusetts law goes into effect and your company must be in compliance. We have been advising our clients for over a year to conduct gender-based pay equity audits to protect their organization against the new exposure and litigation from this law: Several have used our innovative Pay Equity Audit already. The Attorney General’s guidance has made it very clear that there are very few clear answers implementing this law– and that all employers should make compliance a top priority.

Our Pay Equity Audit is designed to help your Massachusetts team achieve compliance with the new law and create a rolling affirmative defense to a gender-based pay equity claim. No worries, if you are not located in Massachusetts, we have other state specific Pay Equity Audits. We stand ready to help and can be reached at questions@foleylawpractice.com or 508-548-4888.

Has your Massachusetts business misclassified employees as independent contractors? It could be a costly error…

Courts in Massachusetts continue to strictly interpret and apply the state’s independent contractor law: the state favors employment status.  On February 27, 2018, the Appeals Court of Massachusetts (AC) ruled that GateHouse Media Massachusetts I, the publisher of the Patriot Ledger, misclassified David King, a newspaper delivery driver, as an independent contractor (2018 WL 1058352). The AC ruled that King was an employee and thereby affirmed a Norfolk Superior Court judgment against GateHouse.
As with most Court decisions in this area of Massachusetts law, the Appeals Court cited to the second prong of the independent contractor test – GateHouse was required to prove that the service furnished by King was “performed outside the usual course of the business of the employer” (M.G.L.A. 149, § 148B). GateHouse failed in that regard, as is often the case. The Court assessed Gatehouse’s evidence by looking at: (1) its own previous description of its business; and also (2) evidence of whether or not the service was necessary (not just incidental) to GateHouse’s business. As GateHouse had previously held itself out as a distributor of the newspaper, and given that the delivery drivers play a big role in distribution, the AC concluded that King was an employee.
Mr. King is one of many who have delivered the Patriot Ledger by automobile to some of the paper’s subscribers. GateHouse now faces the possibility of paying damages to other similarly situated drivers through a related class action. The newspaper is in the unfortunate spot of being the story–do not let it happen to your business.
______
Foley & Foley, PC offers an Positions Classification Audit service to identify potential pitfalls of independent contractors and wage and hour issues. It is an efficient and easy way to protect your business. If you would like more information about this service or any other questions, please contact (508) 548-4888 or info@foleylawpractice.com

Workplace Posters are Free. Really.

Clients often receive pressing, official-looking notices urging the purchase of mandatory employment law postings. While you do have to post, you do not have to buy. Although some states also try to sell posters which is really cheap, all required postings are available free of charge (keep scrolling).  Please see the links below, from the federal government and states where we practice:

Federal: United States Department of Labor – Wage and Hour Division

Massachusetts: Labor and Workforce Development – Massachusetts Workplace Poster Requirements

California: http://www.taxes.ca.gov/payroll_tax/postingreqbus.shtml

Connecticut: https://www.ctdol.state.ct.us/gendocs/Labor_Posters.htm

Georgia: https://dhs.georgia.gov/department-labor-required-workplace-posters

Illinois: https://www.illinois.gov/idol/Employers/Pages/posters.aspx

Kansas:  http://www.dol.ks.gov/Laws/Posters.aspx

Maine: http://www.maine.gov/labor/posters/

Maryland: https://www.dllr.state.md.us/oeope/poster.shtml

Minnesota:  http://www.dli.mn.gov/ls/posters.asp

Missouri: https://labor.mo.gov/posters

New Hampshire: https://www.nh.gov/labor/forms/mandatory-posters.htm

New York: https://labor.ny.gov/workerprotection/laborstandards/employer/posters.shtm

North Carolina:  http://www.nclabor.com/posters/posters.htm

Oregon:  http://staging.apps.oregon.gov/boli/TA/Pages/Req_Post.aspx

Pennsylvania: http://www.hrm.oa.pa.gov/workplace-support/required-postings/Pages/default.aspx

Texas: http://www.twc.state.tx.us/businesses/posters-workplace

Utah: https://laborcommission.utah.gov/divisions/UOSH/RequiredPosters.html

Vermont: http://labor.vermont.gov/

Wisconsin:  https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/dwd/posters.htm

As always, should you have any questions including information for additional state postings, please contact us. We can help. Mike@foleylawpractice.com or 508-548-4888

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! For many, this is a day to honor fallen soldiers and also a time to get ready for summer.

Have you done the following?

• Sunscreen?
• Summer reading list?
• Pay Equity Audit?
• Midyear handbook and diagnostic workplace audit?

If you answered “No” to any one of these questions, we can help!  Read on.

SUNSCREEN

It is outside our wheelhouse but we do like to be helpful.  See the latest list from Consumer Reports. http://www.consumerreports.org/sun-protection/get-the-best-sun-protection/

PAY EQUITY

In 2016 alone, California, New York, Nebraska, Maryland and Massachusetts passed aggressive equal pay legislation. If you are not in this group, the EEOC’s proposed expansion to the EEO-1 reports means more pay data will be required from federal contractors and employers with more than 100 employees.

Do I Need to Buy More Software?

Absolutely not.  By now you may have seen software solicitations touting the importance of statistical analysis to comply with pay equity. Beware.  Sizes matters: unless an employer has a significant number of employees performing the same role and a statistically significant amount are women, a statistical analysis will not produce reliable results. Most of our clients should perform a cohort analysis, which better compares the factors affecting pay.

Why Should I Use Your Pay Equity Audit?  

By partnering with an attorney, the process is protected by the attorney-client privilege. Any pay equity found will be kept strictly confidential.  Moreover, in Massachusetts you create a rolling affirmative defense by conducting an evaluation of pay practices if it is completed within three years prior to the commencement of a wage discrimination claim. We have developed an effective and painless Pay Equity Audit to achieve compliance and create an affirmative defense.

Why Now? 

The effective date of the MA Pay Equity Law is July 1, 2018.  Many of you are planning for 2018 in your budgets and hiring. Include Pay Equity in that list to be compliant and create the rolling affirmative defense against any future claims.

SUMMER READING

Software slamming aside, Bill Gates is a pretty smart guy.  His summer reading list looks terrific.  Check it out!  https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Summer-Books-2017?WT.mc_id=05_22_2017_10_SummerBooks2017_BG-media_&WT.tsrc=BGmedia

 

MIDYEAR HANDBOOK AND DIAGNOSTIC AUDIT

Probably not high on your reading list but terribly important is your employee handbook.  When is the last time you read it? We recommend that you review and update your handbook on an annual basis. Now is a particularly good time given the many local and state law updates.  Marijuana, equal pay, paid family leave, sick leave—many changes have taken place that are probably not properly addressed in your handbook.

Why Worry about the Handbook?

A well-crafted handbook serves many valuable purposes:

• Define the culture of your business
• Set expectations
• Inform employees of compensation, benefits and rules
• Provide a clear avenue for dispute resolution, a critical road map for staff

Your Handbook are a valuable tool for you and an important resource for employees.

 

What is the Diagnostic Audit?

The Risk Management Diagnostic Audit is a tool we have developed to allow you to identify and respond to the compliance risks at your workplace. This audit targets your organization’s unique vulnerability and provides action items to put you on the path to compliance.  Please check out our website or call 508-548-4888 for the steps and timelines for this popular service. http://www.foleylawpractice.com/diagnostic-compliance-audit.html

Enjoy the long weekend!

Contact us at 508-548-4888 or info@foleylawpractice.com

 

 

 

MA Wage Act is mightier than your commission plan

 

Last month, a Massachusetts US District Court judge held that a former employee who quit was still eligible for $32,000 in sales commissions despite a commission plan that provided otherwise.  (Israel v. Voya Institutional Plan Services, LLCI)  Voya’s commission plan specifically stated that an employee who resigns is not eligible for further commission payments.  The plan was clear and on point.  How did the judge get to yes on the commission?

Voya’s plan could not override the Wage Act requirement that sales commissions be paid promptly once the amount is “definitely determined”–at that point the commission becomes “due and payable.” The judge distinguished a sales commission, as a share of sales revenue generated by an employee, from other types of variable compensation– like a bonus.  Because the amount of commission was known and earned based on sales, it fell under the Wage Act’s strict payment requirements.

Massachusetts employers who provide commissions as part of their pay structure are advised to review their commission plans in light of this decision.  As we all know, the MA Wage Act, with its costly provisions for damages and attorney’s fees, is not to be taken lightly.

I feel the Earth move, under my feet

New Overtime Rules are Delayed – Will Not Go in to Effect on December 1 To the shock and relief of employers across the country, a federal judge in Texas has issued a nationwide injunction blocking the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule set to go into effect on December 1. In a 20-page decision, U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant ruled that the 21 states and more than 50 business groups that sued to block the rule stood a significant chance of success and will suffer serious financial harm if the new overtime rules go into effect as scheduled on 12/1. He further held that the DOL overstepped its authority by raising the salary cap for the white collar exemptions from $455 a week to $921 a week or $47,892 a year, a point where the minimum salary supplanted the duties test, which was not the intent of Congress when it created the statutory exemption. What Happens Now? For employers that planned to reclassify previously exempt employees on December 1, solely because employees do not meet the new salary threshold, reclassification can be delayed until further notice. The injunction halts enforcement of the rule unless or until the government can win a countermanding order from the conservative Fifth Circuit court of appeals, where there is a reasonable chance no such order will be forthcoming. In other words, the new overtime rule will now face a full trial on its merits. As we have stated repeatedly over the last 9 months, the white collar exemption to the FLSA is a three part test, including not just a two part salary test, but a duties test as well. The proposed amendment to the FLSA prompted many employers to revisit the duties tests and to reassess old job descriptions for compliance. We remain confident this was time well spent. This ruling has no impact on the existing duties test, and Judge Mazzant’s order solidifies the importance of the duties test. The Department of Labor will continue audits, and employees will continue to file wage and hour claims. Because this injunction has no impact on the duties tests for the executive, administrative, professional, computer and outside sales exemptions, any job descriptions modified to better comply with those duties tests should still be rolled out at your earliest opportunity. Remember: if these positions were reclassified because they failed the duties test – they were incorrectly classified to begin with. To avoid fines and fees, it is important to proceed with those changes. The issue of communicating this change will now be more complex. However, the fact remains that this area of law remains a highly litigated one, and as evidenced by the court’s decision, it can change on a dime. Ultimately, this is why we advised all of our clients to examine job descriptions, and revise exempt classifications, and it remains a strong argument for reclassifying your employees now. Until the court rules one way or the other, or Congress takes a definitive action to update the rules, the new overtime rule will not take effect; but it has not gone away. Please contact our office with questions and concerns about this new development, we are here to help.

© 2016 FOLEY & FOLEY, PC, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

Now what?

by Attorney Angela Snyder

What Happens Now?

Change comes with every Presidential election and this one could be seismic.  Naturally, when we heard the outcome, we began questioning, what does this mean for employment laws?  What will happen to the Affordable Care Act?  What will happen with the new overtime rules?  Should businesses ignore the December 1 deadline and just wait to see what happens next? For Massachusetts, California, Maine and Nevada employers, and 25% of the country, employees will now have access to legal recreational marijuana.  How will the workplace be affected?

While we cannot read the future, we spend much of our day watching laws change and examining legal trends.  Here are our predictions  and advice for weathering the coming changes.

The Overtime Rules

As a threshold matter, Donald Trump will become the President on January 20, 2017, after the new overtime rule takes effect. Although Trump’s Secretary of Labor will likely roll back many of President Obama’s employment-related initiatives, the breadth of these changes remains to be seen. Trump has not released a specific policy or position, although he has said he favors “a delay or a carve-out of sorts,” but only for small businesses. This is far from a guarantee.

Additionally, as we have advised over the last year, the FLSA White Collar exemptions require a 3 part test.  Employees must receive a salary of at least $455 per week (rising to $913) per week; they must receive the same salary no matter how many hours they work; and they must pass a strict duties test.  The new FLSA rule set to take effect December 1, 2016, addresses only the minimum salary level portion of the test.  Many employers audited all of their exempt positions in preparation of these new rules.  To the extent employees were reclassified because their duties did not meet the requirements of one of the White Collar exemptions, a rollback of the new salary levels will be irrelevant.

In late September, two lawsuits were filed in federal court in Texas, and legislation that would delay the effective date of the rule until June 2017 passed the U.S. House of Representatives.  None of the legislation will pass into law before the new rules go into effect.  As for the lawsuits, there is a hearing this week in an action to challenge the rule; and it is possible the presiding judge will issue an injunction at that time.  However, the judge hearing the case is an Obama appointee, which means it is more than likely that on December 1, 2016, by law, all exempt positions must receive a salary of at least $913 per week.

Why comply, when there is a chance the new rules will be rolled back? As a quick reminder, under the FLSA, non-exempt employees who are improperly classified will be owed back wages and liquidated damages (equal to the back wages owed), and the auditing agency or court will look back two years to determine the overtime and wages owed.  If they believe the employer intentionally misclassified employees, that period extends to three years.  Under Massachusetts law, employees are entitled to treble damages.  These are not small penalties and often result in fines in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For this reason, we advise all of our clients to comply with the new overtime rules on December 1.  If the new administration changes the rules, these employees can always be reclassified as exempt at a later date.  

Affordable Care Act

Trump and Republicans in Congress have stated that they will seek to repeal ObamaCare within Trump’s first hundred days in office. There are roughly 1,000 pages of the ACA and its related provisions.  A full repeal will be incredibly difficult, but it is possible.  It does look like Trump’s intention is to replace the ACA with some other program, which means 2017 should be interesting for employers. Trump has also stated he would keep the pre-existing condition mandate and the availability of insurance for children until the age of 26, which sounds a lot like…ObamaCare.

Marijuana Use

With the advent of the edible marijuana industry, a gummy bear is no longer a gummy bear.  Recreational pot shops are coming to Massachusetts in 2018.  Wondering how to prepare your workplace? Here are some things to know when it comes to creating policies on marijuana use:

1. There is not an accurate test for marijuana intoxication.  An employee who uses marijuana outside of work (even the day before) will likely fail a blood test, even if the use was totally outside of work, and he or she was not intoxicated at the time of testing.  Given the legalization of medical marijuana in particular, this has resulted in a number of lawsuits.
2. Although marijuana has now been legalized in a number of states, it is still considered a ‘controlled substance’ under federal law.  As such, at least for the time being, marijuana use remains illegal under federal law. Thus, any federal employer or private employer that receives federal monies may have to conduct testing under federal guidelines.
3. Finally, only New Hampshire and Arizona have laws protecting medicinal marijuana use and preventing employers from discriminating against marijuana users.  This will likely change now that Massachusetts and California have legalized marijuana.

So, what does all of this mean?  In the states that legalized marijuana in 2012, there have been lawsuits filed by employees who have been terminated after a positive drug test.  The outcome of these cases has been surprisingly consistent, and offered employers a fair amount of latitude when it comes to drug testing and terminating employees for marijuana use.  This has been true even in states where recreational marijuana use is legal.  However, the courts up to this point have relied on the fact that marijuana remains illegal under federal law as a major justification for their decisions.

Now that legal access to recreational marijuana exists in several states, it is likely the federal government will have to look seriously at declassifying marijuana as a Schedule I drug.  This, in turn, will likely influence legal decisions.

Although the Massachusetts recreational marijuana law does not directly alter the state laws governing employer drug testing, it definitely makes sense to review your drug testing policies in light of the new law. At a minimum, policies that call for termination or other discipline for an employee’s use of “illegal” drugs may need to be revised, given that it is no longer illegal for adults to use marijuana in Massachusetts.

As to what amount of marijuana use should result in a termination, Colorado and Washington, where recreational use of marijuana is legal, set the level of impairment at 5 nanograms of active tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) based on a set amount of blood. Pennsylvania set a 1 nanogram threshold; Nevada and Ohio opted for 2 nanograms.  States are all over the map because setting a specific impairment threshold with THC is not as clear-cut as it is with alcohol. THC can remain in a person’s system for days and weeks. That means blood tests alone are unreliable.

In 2014, after marijuana was legalized in Washington, fatal crashes where the driver was found to have THC in his/her blood doubled from around 8% to 17%.  Now that so many states have legalized marijuana, the U.S. is going to be forced to find a national standard for sobriety that is based on real science.  However, until that happens, testing for marijuana use will continue to be problematic.

Recommendations

Private employers have latitude in terms of behavior they can prevent in the workplace.  Just as you can prohibit employees from having alcohol in the workplace, you can prohibit them from possessing or being under the influence of marijuana in the workplace.

Where your testing is limited to reasonable suspicion testing, your risk of an employee claim of wrongful termination based on a positive drug test is much lower than if you conduct random tests.  Although an employee may dispute the validity of your test, if you also have documented reasonable suspicion that an employee was under the influence while at work, you will be able to show that your action as an employer was based on a reasonable and good faith belief that the employee was a danger to him/herself or others.

As for smoking, you can continue to prohibit smoking marijuana and/or ingesting marijuana just as you can prohibit smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol.

What About the Rest?

Without question our clients should expect some change in the employment law landscape with the new administration, and it will likely be more employer friendly. However, as we observed during the election, Mr. Trump has shifted positions on many issues, many times.  Trump’s appointments to the DOL, the EEOC, NLRB, and OSHA, not to mention the Supreme Court, will be far more telling of the direction of employment related laws in the coming years.

We can help: info@foleylawpractice.com or 508-548-4888

 

 

The EEOC Jumps on the Employee Classification Bandwagon

 

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued updates to its Strategic Enforcement Plan for 2017-2021 .   At first glance it looks a lot like the current plan.  Then, like many government statements, there is a hidden line that gives a clue to where the EEOC is going:

The Commission adds a new priority to address issues related to complex employment relationships and structures in the 21^st century workplace, focusing specifically on temporary workers, staffing agencies, independent contractor relationships, and the on-demand economy.

The US government is playing catch up to the gig economy—Uber, Lyft, etc.  Yet this priority has noteworthy implications for all employers.  Misclassification of employees is a complicated and expensive issue. The EEOC is joining the chorus of the  Department of Labor (DOL) Misclassification Initiative.

 

If you have not reviewed your employee classification to comply with the December 1, 2016 DOL deadline on the “White Collar” Overtime mandate  you might reconsider an audit or position classification service. The message from the Feds is clear: misclassify employees at your peril (and you thought I was going to write: we just keep coming up with new regs to make it harder to do business!).

 

We can help. Call 508.548.4888 or email  Mike@foleylawpractice.com

DOL OT Rule Going Away? Don’t count your chickens… .

In a new development, 21 states and many business groups are requesting that the Texas court enjoin implementation of the new DOL overtime exemption rules.  As far as their chance of success, at least in the near term, it is not good.

Reports are that both cases have been assigned to Judge Amos Mazzant, who was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2014. It has been suggested that this assignment may not bode well for the plaintiffs.  Theoretically, prospects may improve if the lower court decision is taken up on appeal to the Fifth Circuit.

The states are claiming that the DOL overstepped by raising the salary level for what should be exempt duties–regardless of salary. Moreover, the plaintiffs allege that the automatic indexing that raises the threshold salary over three years is an overreach of authority and should include provisions for economic conditions or the effect on resources.

Our view is that we all stay the course, and continue compliance efforts. With the compliance date of December 1 so close, it would be risky to leave the fate your workplace with the courts. In the meantime we will closely monitor this case and if the courts stop implementation, that will be a wonderful surprise.