As employees and employers, it is always good to maintain fairness in the workplace. How can one ensure that they are doing what is fair at all times? The National Sheriff’s Association and Richard Hodson provide everyone a primer on the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Rick has been an attorney for almost 40 years where he dealt with civil and criminal matters relating to corrections, criminal prosecution and law enforcement operations. He also specializes in management and personnel issues and employment law.

On this course, he’ll unpack basic terms, concepts, definitions and rules governing the Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as some defense techniques to reduce employer liability. Points that Rick tackled on the webinar include:

• A backgrounder on the Fair Labor Standards Act including its scope and crucial case laws that defined its application and limitation.
• The important components and provisions of the FLSA on minimum wage, overtime, equal pay, state labor laws, record keeping, and enforcement.
• The relationship where FLSA provides the minimum standards in labor law which is bolstered and detailed through state laws and union bargaining agreements.
• A rundown on the exemptions and categories of non-covered employees to the FLSA.
• The general overtime rule of compensating an employee one and one-half times the normal pay rate in excess of the 40-hour work week.
• How exempt employees are being compensated for overtime work that is determined by the employer through compensatory time, monetarily, or other incentives.
• Exemption from overtime pay, the conditions for an employee to be exempt, and the three types of white-collared employees namely: executive, administrative and professional employees.
• A case study of white-collar employee exemption in a law enforcement setting.
• Defining hours worked and hours paid, and understanding the de minimus rule critical in computing overtime pay.
• Examples of work that is deemed qualified to be paid time worked.
• Establishing the meaning of a work week based on the employers’ delineation and how collective bargaining is used to authorize exceptions or modification on the rules.
• The circumstances that regulate shift exchanges and substitutions of employees.
• The conditions of secondary employment with another organization or within the same one.
• The description and inclusion of the regular pay rate.
• Using compensatory time in the public and private sector in lieu of overtime pay.
• How poor management of the workforce’s compensatory time affects the agency’s fiscal health.
• Alternative work schedules that may be utilized for firefighters and people who work in law enforcement with powers of arrest and correctional facilities in a security capacity.
• Enforcing the FLSA through the Department of Labor and its power to investigate violations.
• Legal remedies that employees can pursue in case of FLSA violation.
• Ways to mitigate employer liability by abiding by the window of correction, using the good faith defense and effective settlement approved by the Department of Labor.
• During the Q&A portion, the audience raised inquiries on:
  • Weekly hours worked and exempt status
  • Comp time and flex time
  • What bona fide volunteers are
  • Case law relating to on-call work compensation
  • Identifying an agency’s classification as either public or private sector
  • Restrictions on the use of and accruing comp time
  • Different compensation arrangement within one agency

Since the Supreme Court made the Fair Labor Standards Act applicable to the public sector in 1986 it has been an on-going personnel issue producing thousands of suits and cases of major liability for public sector employers. In this webinar we shall discuss:

• Basic terms and definitions of FLSA
• Determination of exempt and non-exempt status for overtime provisions
• Determining compensable hours worked and rate of compensation
• Special rules for public employees and criminal justice professionals
• Record keeping and liability reduction strategies