A Trio of Overtime Pay Disputes

Norfolk, VAOvertime pay, together with the need for overtime, can be both a blessing and a curse depending upon the type of business involved. In the automotive sector and other industries that adhere to tight inventories, overtime is budgeted for and routinely employed. In other sectors, however, overtime is viewed as something to avoid at all costs.

That view—together with the lengths taken by some employers to avoid paying out overtime—can cost in court.

To that end, a class-action lawsuit representing more than 2,000 employees of Dollar General nationwide was split up and assigned to the participating plaintiff's respective jurisdictions. In Norfolk, according to the April 9 edition of the Virginian-Pilot, a total of 11 workers employed by Dollar General stores in the Norfolk area will be entitled to receive compensation of between $1,200 and $2,000 each for overtime pay they claimed was owed to them in an overtime laws dispute with their employer.

Workers claimed that Dollar General misclassified them as management personnel—and, therefore, exempt from overtime—even though they were given little if any supervisory responsibility. The latter is a common tactic employed by companies to avoid paying overtime, by allegedly dropping certain employees into a management classification where the work performed does not support such a classification.

Two other overtime labor laws cases in the Norfolk area will see workers cashing in. A total of 70 former employees of Tidewater Staffing Inc. will share in $209,000 provided by their former employer to settle allegations that overtime pay was denied them. Tidewater maintains it did nothing wrong.

Nor does Albano Cleaners admit to any wrongdoing when they agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by a single employee. Court papers in federal court state that Albano is required to pay $24,000—an amount that includes costs and attorney's fees—to settle a pay for overtime dispute.

Overtime is, for most small businesses and all but the largest of corporations, somewhat of a scourge. While regular pay can be budgeted, overtime is dispensed as needed. There is no crystal ball that will tell an employer, in most cases, when overtime will be required and how much. For those employers striking an overtime budget, the funds represent dollars sitting in a budget line that could have been used for other, more pressing concerns, such as equipment acquisitions.

On the other hand, for those small employers without an overtime budget, any claim for employee overtime pay eats directly into their profits. It is here, that we often see employers getting creative—or stooping to allegedly illegal practices—in an effort to avoid paying.