Overtime hours are calculated based on the person’s hourly rate and anything above 40 they’re supposed to be getting a halftime premium. For example, if the hourly rate is $10 an hour and the person works five extra hours above 40 hours a week, they’re supposed to be paid an extra $5 for those extra overtime hours.
Business disputes are handled as any other kind of lawsuit. It’s either going to be handled through negotiation, through a court process and litigation or through arbitration. Typically, business disputes should always have efforts to try to settle the cases and reach some kind of common ground. Sometimes a lawsuit will need to be filed or defended, but then it will lead to a negotiated resolution. The earlier that you can have some discussion to determine what the other side wants and what you want the better it is. Some cases have to go farther, and the court will have to decide it.
Workers who receive tips also do require the payment of minimum wage. If you’re a tipped employee there are sometimes what’s called a tipped credit, which means that the poor employee can be paid a sub-minimum wage. A wage that’s less than a normal minimum wage because the employee is obtaining tips.
Some managers have to be paid overtime, some do not; it depends on their duties. To be exempt as an executive, which some managers are exempt from the overtime wage requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, there have to be certain duties met, as well as the person has to be paid on a salary basis. Sometimes, managers are misclassified as managers when they’re really primarily workers or employees doing regular work and their duties are not primarily managerial or executive. Sometimes those employees can be required by law to be paid overtime.
All employees do not need to have employment agreements, in fact most employees do not have employment agreements with their employees. It is beneficial though for employers to at least to have written policies, typically these should be signed off by the employees covering what is expected of the employee in the work place.
An employer typically cannot hold your paycheck until you return equipment because the employer always has to pay at least the minimum wage. Some employers attempt to do this where they withhold a paycheck. In that case, the employee can bring a claim for minimum wages as well as for their withheld paycheck. Employer, however, may counter claim for whatever its losses are for these items that it claims need to be returned.
If there are untrue statements made by the former employer, the question is, were these defamatory statements? If they’re defamatory or they cast the employee in a false light, then there can be a claim for defamation. There also might be a claim for retaliation. That’s why it’s typically advisable for employers to be very careful about what they say about an employee to others after the employment relationship had ended.
An employer can require an employee to arbitrate claims after they’ve been hired, but there has to be a written agreement signed by both the employer and the employee. Courts will typically honor those agreements because courts encourage arbitration to minimize the impact in courts and allow the parties, both the employer and employee to resolve the claims in the matter they’ve contracted for.
There are many exceptions to employment at will, and these are what are called discrimination laws. When an employee is being discriminated against based on race, on age, ethnicity, whistle-blower status, worker’s compensation status, these are exceptions to the at will rule that have been created by the courts as well as by the legislatures. These allow the employees to enjoy protections where the employer cannot simply saying, “You’re an at-will employee because I’m terminating you.” The laws say you’re not allowed to fire somebody for these particular reasons, and if you do you’re subject to damages for those claims.
Not all employers are covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. There are 2 basic types of coverage under the Fair Labor Standards Act. One type, the typical type is enterprise coverage meaning that the employer has to have at least $500,000 in revenues, and it has to have at least 2 employees. There are other types of coverage, which are called traditional coverage where there’s certain businesses that are going to otherwise be covered in the Fair Labor Standards Act regardless of the revenues and the number of employees.
Florida Business Litigation Lawyer Blog