According to an August 20th press release, a massive national Uniform provider, Cintas, came to terms recently on an almost $23 million settlement with a class of hundreds delivery drivers to whom it failed to pay overtime compensation.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) is the Federal law mandating overtime compensation to persons who work more than forty hours a week. The law has a number of carve outs, more properly called exemptions, for broad groups of employees who are not entitled to overtime. The lawsuit alleged that Cintas misclassified the drivers as exempt employees under the FLSA. After an arbitrator ruled in favor of the drivers, the parties agreed to settle the matter for the above amount.
Many misconceptions exist about who is and is not entitled to overtime. For example, just because a person receives a salary does not mean they are exempt from overtime. Another mistaken belief is that “managers” cannot be entitled to overtime. The truth is that salary and title have little to do with the analysis. The law is far more concerned with an employee’s actual duties and responsibilities than anything else.
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