Staffing company employees, who claim they were wrongly misclassified as exempt from overtime pay requirements, have filed suit seeking recovery of overtime pay. The employees worked for the staffing company, Randstad, were paid salaries and had job titles such as talent acquisition specialist, account manager, senior account manager or staffing consultant.
The employees claim that their job titles are basically meaningless, that they did not do managerial or supervisory duties. That what they did was recruit employees to be staffed at client companies. They also claim that their daily job functions and duties were very closed monitored and regulated as follows:
- they had to meet a very detailed matrix of what are basically production goals to get their full salaries
- they "clock in" through the company's website which keeps a minute-by-minute logging of their work production and activities
- in doing their jobs they are required to follow a very detailed script
Source: Digital Journal
This case appears to bear the usual marks where an employer attempts to evade paying overtime by characterizing the employees as salaried and giving them job titles that would ordinarily indicate a job that is exempt from overtime pay requirements. Two problems suggest themselves immediately: (1) under both federal and state law an employee is not properly considered "salaried" if meeting a production goal is necessary for them to be paid their full salary for the relevant pay period; and, (2) jobs exempt from overtime pay requirements must have the capacity to exercise (and to actually exercise) independent judgment and discretion. Where the employee's job functions are so closely monitored and scripted, it is hard to see the employee truly and really having or being able to exercise independent judgment and discretion.
Lexington, Kentucky overtime lawyer Robert Abell represents individuals and employees seeking to recover the wages and overtime they've earned but not been paid; contact him at 859-254-7076.
