HR Specialist: Pennslyvania Employment Law

Jurors in Pennsylvania are notoriously generous to fired employees. And that’s just the beginning. Aggressive attorneys don’t stop with federal laws like FMLA, ADA and FLSA: they use state and local living-wage statutes, rural codes, plus discrimination and other laws to sue employers for sky’s-the-limit damages. This Pennsylvania-specific newsletter arrives monthly to help sue-proof every aspect of HR. Written in plain English, it’s your insurance policy for staying in step with current interpretations of state and local laws – and staying out of court. Learn more about HR Specialist: Pennsylvania Employment Law and the free report you’ll get when you subscribe...
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An arbitrator has ruled that the EEOC willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by forcing employees to take comp time instead of overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours a week.

The EEOC will be liable for back pay, plus liquidated damages that so far haven’t been determined.

Arbitrator Steven M. Wolfe found the EEOC “management knew employees continued to work beyond their regular hours, but their interest was in making sure production goals were reached.” He said EEOC forms had been altered so employees couldn’t exercise their rights to claim overtime pay.

The EEOC handled a record number of cases last year—95,402 complaints, up 26% since 2006. At the same time, the agency lost more than a quarter of its staff as its budget shrank.