Tag Archives: overtime

How to get paid regular wages for missing work due to a medical visit in a workers’ compensation case

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Can an injured worker claim their regular pay if they go to a medical appointment as part of their workers compensation claim? The answer is yes. But like most legal questions there are always qualifications.

Why you can get paid wages for workers’ compensation medical visits
First, per the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and federal regulation 29 CFR 785.43, getting paid for time spent going to a doctor applies when the employee seeks treatment on site or during regular work hours. An employee might have a harder time claiming pay if they are forced to seek medical treatment during non-work hours. But I believe it would be a close and interesting legal issue if time spent going to employer-compelled medical treatment during non-work hours would be covered under the FLSA.

Secondly, per case law, it seems like that medical treatment would need to be expressly authorized and set up by the employer.  It might be more difficult for an employee to get paid their wages while taking time off of work for medical treatment in a disputed workers’ compensation case.

Another complication may be if an employee takes paid leave to attend an employer-ordered medical appointment. Arguably since paid leave or paid time off isn’t mandated by law it might be difficult to bring a claim under the FLSA for the forced taking of paid leave. State wage and hour laws like the Nebraska Wage Payment and Collection Act may provide a remedy.

Why wage and hour law can be better than workers’ compensation claims when it comes to wage payment issues

So why would an injured worker want to claim unpaid wages instead of temporary disability? Several reasons, in Nebraska temporary total disability pays two-thirds of your pay and temporary partial disability pays two-thirds the difference between reduced hours and your average weekly wage. But under wage and hour law, a workers can claim their full wages for time spent going to certain medical visits as part of their workers’ compensation claim.

In Nebraska, overtime pay is not taken into account in determining workers compensation benefits. But under the Fair Labor Standards Act an employee can claim overtime pay. The Nebraska Workers compensation act also caps benefit rates at $882 per week. There is no cap to hourly pay under the FLSA.

Nebraska also has a one week waiting period for benefits. In injuries where disability lasts less than six weeks, that first week of disability isn’t paid. There is no waiting period for unpaid wages under the FLSA.

I’ve written about how the Nebraska workers’ compensation act has weak attorney fee and penalty provisions that make it easy for employers to shortchange employees when it comes to workers compensation disability benefit payments. In contrast the FLSA has strong attorney fee and penalty provisions that make it more attractive to bring claims for smaller amounts. Smaller FLSA claims can also be combined into collective action claims.  The Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act, like most of other workers’ compensation laws, does not allow for collective or class action cases.

The only disadvantage of getting wages over workers’ compensation benefits is wages are taxable while workers compensation benefits are not taxable.

How an employee can bring a wage claim for time spent going to the doctor for workers’ compensation case.

The most important part of a wage and hour case for a worker is being able to precisely prove lost time. This should be simple for injured workers as medical visits usually only take place a few times a week at the most. Many injured workers keep track of mileage already as mileage benefits are part of medical benefits under workers’ compensation in Nebraska. If you can keep track of mileage, you can also keep track of time spent going to medical appointments. If an injured worker turns in mileage to their attorney or workers compensation claims department, there is no reason they can’t turn over claims for unpaid wages to Human Resources directly or through their attorneys.

Anti-retaliation provisions

Retaliation is always a concern of workers who exercise their rights at work. Fortunately, the FLSA makes it unlawful for an employer to retaliate against an employee for exercising their rights under the law. Nebraska and most other states prohibit employers from retaliating against workers who file workers compensation as well.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Department of Labor Weighs In on New Age of Salary Servitude for ‘Executives’

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Most of the U.S. workforce has the right, provided by the Fair Labor Standards Act, to be paid overtime for working more than 40 hours in a week. Before the federal government set rules for overtime, most employees worked longer hours, and millions of Americans worked six or seven days a week, as Chinese factory workers do today. Salaried workers also have the right to be paid a premium for overtime work, unless they fall into an exempt category as a professional, an administrator, or an executive. Exempt employees must be skilled and exercise independent judgment, or be a boss with employees to supervise. However, many companies have worked to get around these overtime rules by classifying employees like cooks, convenience store employees or restaurant workers as “managers,” “supervisors,” or “assistant managers or supervisors,” so that their employer can deny them overtime under this exception. 

In May 2016, the Department of Labor issued its final rule establishing a new minimum salary threshold for the white-collar exemptions (executive, administrative and professional) under the Fair Labor Standards Act. This new threshold of $913 per week ($47,476 annualized) more than doubles the current minimum weekly salary threshold of $455 per week ($23,660 annualized).  While that may seem like a huge increase, the old threshold level is only $2 a week above the poverty level for a family of four. Twenty-one states have filed suit to challenge this rule, citing the rule will force many businesses, including state and local governments, to unfairly and substantially increase their employment costs. 

The old rule allowed companies to put employees on “salary” at a low rate and require them to work sometimes significant overtime. The fact that so many government entities are concerned about this new rule substantially increasing their employment costs underscores the extent to which even government entities have taken advantage of employees in this fashion. Can you imagine earning $25,000/year and having to work 50, 60 or 70 hours a week? Even at 50 hours a week, that equates to an hourly wage of only $8.01!

In the first year, the department estimates that the new rule may affect, in some manner, over 10 million workers who earn between $455/week and the new $913/week threshold.  

The median worker has seen a wage increase of just 5 percent between 1979 and 2012, despite overall productivity growth of 74.5 percent (Mishel and Shierholz, 2013), according to the Economic Policy Institute. One reason Americans’ paychecks are not keeping pace with their productivity is that millions of middle-class and even lower-middle-class workers are working overtime and not getting paid for it. Before this rule change, the federal wage and hour law was out of date. This change purports to correct this modern day servitude that the law – for the last 30 years – has carved out a huge exception, allowing workers to be taken advantage of simply by assigning them a title and paying them a salary.  

 

Sources:

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Falling Asleep On The Job: Insufficient Sleep Is A Compensable Condition

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There can be consequences to not getting enough sleep. For many, working patterns vary. Examples include truckers or those who do shift work. Throw in shifts that switch from night to day every few weeks, and it can be even harder to get enough sleep. But as our colleague Jon Gelman of New Jersey shows us in today’s guest post, sleep is essential for health and well-being. And not enough sleep is a compensable condition.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends that U.S. adults receive, on average, 7–9 hours of sleep per night; however, 37.1% of adults report regularly sleeping <7 hours per night. Persons reporting sleeping <7 hours on average during a 24-hour interval are more likely to report unintentionally falling asleep during the day at least 1 day out of the preceding 30 days (46.2% compared with 33.2%) and nodding off or falling asleep at the wheel during the previous 30 days (7.3% compared with 3.0%). Frequent insufficient sleep (14 or more days in the past 30 days) also has been associated with self-reported anxiety, depressive symptoms, and frequent mental and physical distress (4).

Even short term sleep duration is linked with:

  • Increased risk of motor vehicle accidents
  • Increase in body mass index – a greater likelihood of obesity due to an increased appetite caused by sleep deprivation
  • Increased risk of diabetes and heart problems
  • Increased risk for psychiatric conditions including depression and substance abuse
  • Decreased ability to pay attention, react to signals or remember new information

Such findings suggest the need for greater awareness of the importance of sufficient sleep. Further information about factors relevant to optimal sleep can be obtained from the National Sleep Foundation and CDC.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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