I recently took over an HR position that had been vacant for some months. Prior to that they had three HR people in a single year. Prior to THAT they had the same HR person for about four years. Needless to say, there is a ton of work to be done.

Here is the situation I find myself in. The long-term HR person was not HR trained, but took over the duties as they came and eventually earned the HR title by default. During her tenure, they decided to save $ by making a certain work group salaried. Yep, you guessed it, they've been running their operation with a non-exempt class being paid a straight salary with no tracking of hours or OT.

I will be bringing this to the attention of the owners tomorrow, but want to have a little advice before I drop the bomb. Obviously, we must begin keeping track of hours worked and paying OT. Has anyone BTDT and how did you go about correcting the assumed OT from the point prior to the correction? We have several employees who have 5+ years of seniority in this class and I was going to suggest they get an Employment Lawyer involved on the best way to correct this.

Ideas? Advice?

I recently took over an HR position that had been vacant for some months. Prior to that they had three HR people in a single year. Prior to THAT they had the same HR person for about four years. Needless to say, there is a ton of work to be done.

Here is the situation I find myself in. The long-term HR person was not HR trained, but took over the duties as they came and eventually earned the HR title by default. During her tenure, they decided to save $ by making a certain work group salaried. Yep, you guessed it, they've been running their operation with a non-exempt class being paid a straight salary with no tracking of hours or OT.

I will be bringing this to the attention of the owners tomorrow, but want to have a little advice before I drop the bomb. Obviously, we must begin keeping track of hours worked and paying OT. Has anyone BTDT and how did you go about correcting the assumed OT from the point prior to the correction? We have several employees who have 5+ years of seniority in this class and I was going to suggest they get an Employment Lawyer involved on the best way to correct this.

Ideas? Advice?

BTDT many, many times over. There are two ways to definitively resolve an employee's claim for overtime - court approval of a settlement or by the DOL. A mere statement, even verified by an employee that he/she was paid for al lovertime is not a defense unless the employee has truely been paid all wages owed. You could always call in each employee had have them give you a written estimate/accounting of their straight time and overtime hours and pay them accordingly. The 5+ year seniority is irrelevant since a claim can only go back 2 of 3 years, depending on whether the violation was wilful. Obviously the only way to avoid a future claim under the willful standard is to ahead and pay for three year period.

I applaud you for taking these steps. However, I would be surprised if the employer agrees to voluntarily pay since it attempted to save money in the past and each day that passes results in saved money the employer would have to pay out as the SOL eats away at the recoverable wages.