I'm in South Carolina. I work for a company who is using the fluctuating work week method of calculation for overtime payment. They are currently involved in a number of class actions regarding their method of calculating the half time rate, but I'm confused over the legality of the fluctuating work week.

I thought it was intended as a method of making overtime calculations simpler for employees who worked less than forty hours one week and more than forty the next. In my company's case, it is being used strictly as a way to avoid paying proper overtime.

If it was the intent of FSLA to assure that worker bees were paid time and a half for work over forty hours in a week, then scheduling "salaried plus overtime" employees for forty eight plus hours EVERY SINGLE WEEK doesn't seem to fit the spirit of the law.

Can someone explain to me the criteria used to determine who may use this method? Are there no limitations? Are there circumstances under which the Federal government can say "No, you can't do that"?

I've seen several references in some of these class actions where this company is accused of not including some parts of an employee's income when determing the "half time" part of the salary. I've seen bonuses specifically mentioned. What about commissions? And how can those parts of an annual gross be calculated prior to those amounts being paid?

Nightauel

OK, third post about the fluctuating workweek method today. :eek:
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_778/29CFR778.114.htm

OK, third post about the fluctuating workweek method today. :eek:
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_778/29CFR778.114.htm

Well, I searched the site for quite a while before I posted the question, so the subject title must have been pretty obscure, or in an atypical location. :o

Thank you for the reference, in any case. Up until now, I had only read others' interpretation of it.

To pursue the point, if this SC company is found through the class action to have "miscalculated" overtime for its salaried plus overtime plus commissioned employees, can the Federal government say "OK, you can't do that any more. You have to stop using the fluctuating work week method?" We are talking about a substantial amount of money and a huge number of people who as a group probably never understood what they were getting into. And, in my opinion, we are talking about a deliberate "oversight".

I also note that this particular code has not been updated in 25 years. What will it take to move it into a century where large corporations skirt the edge of abuse of its employees on a daily basis using the code as their whip and chain?

Nightauel

What will it take to move it into a century where large corporations skirt the edge of abuse of its employees on a daily basis using the code as their whip and chain?


At the risk of starting something, what it will take is the occupation of the White House, both houses of Congress, and most state governing bodies by people who are not Ronald Reagan/George W. Bush/Karl Rove and their ilk.

Why this country has swung so solidly "conservative" Republican, at the cost of jobs, earnings, national image, environment, and living standard is beyond me.

From the Independent Republic of Travis, deep in the Heart of What Used to be Texas...

Amen, Brother (speaking from the liberal state of Massachusetts)