Chicago
based Walsh Construction is facing a federal class action overtime pay lawsuit
in Connecticut, brought by non-craft project bookkeepers claiming Walsh
improperly classified them as professional accountants, exempt from time and a
half for hours worked past 40 per week. Most construction tradespeople
belonging to unions have labor agreements requiring them to be paid time and a
half –or more on Sundays and holidays – for overtime work, but non-union
clerical and administrative staffers lack the overtime pay requirements of
union contracts.
The
class action lawsuit is part of a drive to use the existing Fair Labor
Standards Act, and the Obama administration’s proposed new rules, to require
construction contractors to pay overtime past 40 hours to everyone on a project
site who earls less than $52,000.00 per year. Companies in the construction
business should watch the outcome of this case closely, to determine what
impact the result may have on their own payroll expenditures, and bottom lines.
