I am a field service engineer, repairing medical instruments. I work from my home in Louisiana, but my company's home office is in Cal. My normal service area covers four states. Most of the overtime I work is either driving or flying to and from customers. I am only paid a flat salary. If I get a service call out of state in the afternoon, I am required to travel that night to get to the customer site the next morning, or if they are open, that night.
My questions are, how is my company getting away with paying me as a Exempt employee? Do I file a claim with La. or Ca. dept of labor.
How can I protect myself if I do file a claim.

Thanks for any help.

Worn out in Louisiana

Honestly, I've always been unsure about such field technicians. However, my educated opinion would be that you would not meet the criteria to be treated as exempt.

As a nonexempt employee, I'm trying to figure out if maybe they're treating you as "salary nonexempt", which is not an FLSA classification per se, but does have some different overtime calculations.

Do you ever work less than 40 hours per week, including travel time? If so, are you still paid your salary for that week?

BTW, any claim we may determine is warranted would have to be filed with the federal Dept. of Labor, as Louisiana does not have any such laws of its own it can enforce. The fact that the company is HQ in California is irrelevant, because you don't perform services there.

Thanks for the quick response.

I E-mail my regional manager weekly with my "timebook" which show my hours worked. I am required to report at least 40 hours per week. My hours are broken down as Admin. time ( I am only allowed to report 1 hour per day as admin time) Wait time, (the time I'm home waiting to get a dispatch to a service call), Travel time, Labor time, (time onsite at the customers location) and PTO. I am not allowed to make any decisions as to when and how to travel to the customers. I am required to keep my pager on 7am to 7pm, 5 days a week(unless I'm on weekend call) but I am told off the record to keep it on and respond to pages 24/7. The last two days for example, Thursday morning I did a little paperwork. Then at 2pm I was dispatched to a service call in Austin, Tx. I drove to the New Orleans airport for a 6:50pm flight to Houston, had a two hour layover in Houston, and did not arrive in Austin till midnight. By the time I got the rental car and made it to my motel room it was 1:30am. The next morning I was at the customer for 8am, repaired their equipment, flew out of Austin and made it back home in Louisiana at 9:30pm. So for those two days my Timebook would report 1 hour admin time, 5 hrs wait time, 22.5 hrs travel and 3 hrs labor(I'm good at what I do) for a total of 31.5 hrs for two days. As I understand the law, wait time or free time can only be used as compensation if your are given advanced notice as to when your free time can start and when it will end to make it useful. I can never make any personal plans day or night Monday thru Friday, because I never know in advanced what I am going to be required to do. What is the best way to file a complaint with the Fed. Dept of Labor. I called them once to get some information and the person I talked to was clueless as to what a Field Service Engineer does and how to help me with the overtime pay issue. Do I need a Lawyers help to protect my job. Thanks again for any help.

Worn out in Louisiana.

Greetings, 'Atomicthunk'. I received an email message from you, but, I can't seem to reply directly to you! (It appears the message goes back to the webmaster of this site.) I will reply to your message below.

Query: Can someone please remind me how to respond to personal messages?

-----

My apologies for taking so long to get back to you. I've been "on the road" (which I know you understand)! I totally feel your pain. Been there ... was just there this week ... will be there again NEXT week, I'm sure!

Since I posted last, I've been working with and gathering information with an EXCELLENT attorney who I'm sure can assist you! We're in the 'information gathering' stage, and I've been impressed with them thus far. I'm sure they would enjoy discussing your options with you. Also, feel free to let them know I referred you. It doesn't hurt that they know I'm pleased with their work thus far! =o) [[Please contact me for the attorney's name and telephone number!]]

I have worked as a biomedical tech with a company BASED IN CALIFORNIA previously. If you are a biomedical repair tech employed in the same capacity that I was, your California-based company MUST pay you overtime ... as explained to my by my previous employer! No doubt. You have a case. You should be getting overtime. Please feel free to contact me again (and include an email address)! I'd be interested in speaking with you more about our similar situations!

Note: I'm still working at my present company, so, naturally, I don't want them to know I have contacted an attorney. Thus far, it's been easy to keep my inquiries under wraps using my 'home' computer and my personal cell phone. That said, I would make sure that any communication you have with the attorney is NOT using your company laptop or company cell phone. Just a bit of friendly advice.

Good luck!
california(at)techie(dot)com

When you receive and read a PM, there should be a blue button the the bottom right corner marked, Reply. Click on that.

If you want to send, be certain you click on Personal Message and not E-mail.

If you are a biomedical repair tech employed in the same capacity that I was, your California-based company MUST pay you overtime ... as explained to my by my previous employer! No doubt. You have a case. You should be getting overtime.

I would note for the benefit of the OP, however, that California does have stricter regulations than federal for the classification of exempt employees. And that California also has more stringent overtime requirements. And California requires that travel time on behalf of the employer is compensable, no matter when it occurs.

Louisiana follows federal law in all three of these issues. The fact that the company is a California corporation is of no relevance (except for that is where you might serve papers if you sued them) when it comes to the employment law questions the OP originally asked, since he did not work in California.