I've read the DOL FLSA, as well as the exemptions under Section 13(a)(1) and Section 13(a)(17). I was never concerned with overtime until my company started getting really strict with hours, so I was wondering what some legal opinions might be of the situation.

I was hired by my company as a project coordinator and meeting facilitator to be contracted to the Federal government. This means I coordinate meetings, take minutes and coordinate reviews of documents related to computer systems for the government. My background is system and network administration, and I was hired because this knowledge was in my background because I'm the project coordinator and meeting facilitator for the Enterprise Architecture team for the agency that my company is billing me out to. (This is why I'm not sure if the computer professional exemption applies to me).

My company is headquartered in Maryland, but I work in an office in Virginia. My company claims me as salaried and exempt, however, I am compensated as hourly. I bill time in quarter hour increments to the client. And for time not worked, I must bill to unpaid leave, vacation, or sick. On a previous contract with my company, they allowed me to bill straight time for overtime on a contract because the government agency was willing to pay for the additional hours. Under that contract, where they paid me straight time over time, I was actually acting as a Computer System Engineer, designing and deploying computer systems for the client.

On the current contract, I worked a lot of overtime in the past, but because my hours were flexible, I was happy to simply bill 8 hours a day. Recently my boss has set a new policy elliminating previously allowed flex time. Here is part of his email:
"Effective January 9, 2006, flexing is no longer allowed on our poject. We have two shifts on the project: 7:30 - 4:30, 1 hour lunch, and 8:30 - 5:30, 1 hour lunch. You must pick one and stick to it. You cannot charge overtime as we are not cleared to do so on this project. Once your shift is done, you are free to leave, although getting the job done is still your responsibility. Timesheets will reflect 8 hours for every week day, made up of a job number, leave, leave without pay, holiday or any combination of these. Timesheets will not be accepted if they show more or less than 8 hours for any given day.
If you are late or leave early for personal reasons (traffic, sick, didn't feel like getting up, etc.), you MUST charge appropriate leave, even if you stay late to finish your work. Until further notice, these guidelines are firm and there are no negotiations."

I might be wrong, but it seems that they might be bending the law a bit here. I would love some legal opinions on it. Thank you.

I was hired by my company as a project coordinator and meeting facilitator to be contracted to the Federal government. This means I coordinate meetings, take minutes and coordinate reviews of documents .....(This is why I'm not sure if the computer professional exemption applies to me).

The computer professional exemption is VERY narrow, and what you described does not apply.

On a previous contract with my company, they allowed me to bill straight time for overtime on a contract because the government agency was willing to pay for the additional hours. Under that contract, where they paid me straight time over time, I was actually acting as a Computer System Engineer, designing and deploying computer systems for the client.

The work you describe here sounds like it falls within the computer professional exemption, provided you met the minimum hourly wage test.

"Effective January 9, 2006, flexing is no longer allowed on our poject. We have two shifts on the project: 7:30 - 4:30, 1 hour lunch, and 8:30 - 5:30, 1 hour lunch. You must pick one and stick to it. You cannot charge overtime as we are not cleared to do so on this project. Once your shift is done, you are free to leave, although getting the job done is still your responsibility. Timesheets will reflect 8 hours for every week day, made up of a job number, leave, leave without pay, holiday or any combination of these. Timesheets will not be accepted if they show more or less than 8 hours for any given day.
If you are late or leave early for personal reasons (traffic, sick, didn't feel like getting up, etc.), you MUST charge appropriate leave, even if you stay late to finish your work. Until further notice, these guidelines are firm and there are no negotiations."

I might be wrong, but it seems that they might be bending the law a bit here. I would love some legal opinions on it. Thank you.

The only thing potentially illegal here is if they are REQUIRING you to work overtime, but not compensating you for it. They are perfectly within their rights to enforce set a schedule and enforce it. They are also within their rights to force you to charge against your paid leave for any absences, including tardies. They are not, however, permitted to force you to work overtime and not compensate you for it at 1.5 times your regular rate.

Thank you for your reply. I understand that they are allowed to set a fixed schedule and ask me to bill to vacation, sick, unpaid leave, etc when I am not there during that scheduled time, however the part that seems questionable is when he states "Once your shift is done, you are free to leave, although getting the job done is still your responsibility." So if the workload exceeds that of a reasonable 8 hour day, or some last minute "emergency" work pops up at 5 PM, and staying until 7 PM to get it done is required in order to meet the responsibility requirement set forth, then are they required to pay time and a half for the overtime? And if I have a doctors appointment in the morning, and bill 3 hours to sick leave, but then have to work 8 hours that afternoon in order to meet the responsibility requirement set forth, are they required to pay me 5 hours straight time and 3 hours of time and a half in addition to the 3 hours of sick time? Thanks.

To answer your questions very simply, if you work more than 40 hours in a given week, you must be paid overtime at a rate of 1.5 your hourly wage. VA does not have daily overtime pay (I am 99% certain I am correct about that).

If they are requiring you to work and not be paid, that is illegal. If they are requiring you to work beyond 40 hours in a work week without overtime pay, that is illegal too. It doesn't matter how many sick, personal, vacation, etc. hours you add into the mix. The only amount of time that they are required to compensate you at an overtime rate is for hours beyond 40 that you have actually worked. I'll give you an example so that you understand.

M - 4 hrs sick (dr. appt) 5 hrs worked
Tu- 8 hrs worked
W - 8 hrs worked
Th - 16 hrs worked (big emergency)
F - 16 hrs worked

Your employer should pay you 40 regular hours, 13 OT, and 4 sick. Anything else would be illegal.

I hope this helps.

VA does not have daily overtime pay (I am 99% certain I am correct about that).

You are.

I'll make one amendment to your example. The employer does not HAVE to pay 4 hours sick time. If the employee is eligible for overtime at all, then the employer is not legally obligated to pay for any time not worked. That's the flip side of that coin. While an exempt employee must be paid for time not worked due to illness, a non-exempt employee does not. It's the employer's choice whether to pay sick time in that situation or not.

Otherwise, I concur.

Thank you all for your advice and comments. I think I will talk with the DOL tomorrow, and potentially a lawyer to see if they are interested in taking the case as a contingent small class action.

I would speak with the my boss first, but his latest email to me, in response to my statement that I would be reporting my overtime on my time card from this point forward, he basically implied that if I tried to claim any unpaid overtime, he would go back and write me up for some minor tardies that happened 4 months ago, which would lead to my termination. So I'd rather report it to the DOL and a lawyer first. Is my understanding correct that I'm given some amount of protection in that I can't be fired in response to filing for unpaid overtime, or if I am, I can take action against the company for doing so?

The company has followed 40 hours maximum of pay in a week, regardless of hours worked (unless of course they worked fewer hours), as a policy with all of its employees for a few years now, so it might just be an unwelcome enlightening experience for the company owner. But thank you again.