Compensation and Overtime Applied to Security Personnel - Essay Example

Running head: Compensation and Overtime Compensation and Overtime Applied to Security Personnel First and School Abstract This essay covers the topics of what overtime is, what the FLSA states and regulates, who is considered exempt and non-exempt, and what the court case, Garcia v. City of San Antonio determined. It shows these different aspects of these by taking a look at how they apply to the profession of the security personnel. It also takes a look at whether or not the rules apply according to what state you reside in. Compensation and Overtime Applied to Security Personnel “Hey I need you to come in for a few hours this weekend,” Joe the manager said as he approached in an easy manner, “we’ve been falling behind in our numbers lately and we need to play catch up.” “Will we be receiving overtime?” Bob the employee inquires, though he already knows the response. “Good one, that’s why we moved you to salary remember?” Joe chuckles as he walks back to his office. Fairness, in workers time and effort, versus pay has long been a minefield for dispute in the workplace. Typically speaking the worker tends to feel overworked and underpaid, and the owner tends to feel the employee is underworked and overpaid. Over the years lawsuits on compensation and overtime have arisen many times, and the decisions made by the Supreme Court in interpreting the constitution have greatly impacted the way these two are handled. So in order to investigate these laws and how they are applied in greater detail we are going to take one group of employees, security personnel, and see how overtime and compensation are regulated for them in the state of Texas. We will do this by defining overtime, by looking at what FLSA and the states say, by determining who is considered exempt and non-exempt employees, and by looking at how the United States Supreme Court case of Garcia v. City of San Antonio applies. Overtime Defined The exact definition of overtime is any work done in addition to regular working hours (Lovett, 2011). However this leads to the question what are regular working hours? Regular working hours can be determined in several ways. The first way is by custom. This means the amount of hours that is considered healthy or reasonable by society. In the United States the custom for regular working hours is forty hours a week. The second way regular working hours can be defined is by the practices of a given trade or profession. A regular working week for an air traffic controller, for example, is anywhere between fifty – seventy hours. The third way regular working hours can be determined is by legislation. This occurs through bills being passed through congress to regulate the work environment and determine that healthy, reasonable expectations are being placed on the employee. Legislation such as this tends to be determined by court cases or bills being past. The final way regular working hours can be determined is by agreement between employers and their employees. This type of agreement has to fall into compliance with any legislation that governs the hours allowed, however, were applicable. FLSA The Fair Labor Standards Act or the FLSA was created, by congress, in 1938 during the midst of the great depression. Its goal was to protect the rights of the workers who were being treated exceptionally unfairly during this time. In doing this it encouraged fairness between management and workers. It accomplished this by regulating minimum wage, overtime, and child labor laws, as well as other work related laws. It is still in effect and constantly being updated and affects any businesses with employees who engage in interstate commerce. The FLSA is a federal act and is enforced by the federal government, due to this, there have been many court cases disputing states rights to regulate these laws versus that of the federal governments. Exempt and Non-Exempt Employees The majority of jobs are covered by the FLSA, however, some are not. If a job is covered by FLSA it is considered non-exempt, if a job is not covered it is considered exempt. There are two different types of exclusions: the ones that are excluded from the statute itself, and the ones that are governed by some other specific federal labor law. For example, railroad workers are covered under the Railway Labor Act so they are considered exempt from FLSA. In order to be excluded from the statute itself it depends on how much they are paid, how they are paid, and what type of work they do. To be exempt this way the employee must make at least four hundred and fifty five dollars a week, be paid on a salary basis, and perform exempt job duties (Chamberlain, 2003). According to this security personnel so long as they, “work at an establishment that is engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, such as a warehouse, factory, bank, insurance company, etc, he/she is covered by the FLSA”(U.S Department of Labor, 2008). However, if they worked for an individual as a self-contractor they may not be covered. Garcia v. City of San Antonio In this case the San Antonio Metropolitan Authority said it was exempt from the minimum-wage and overtime requirements of FLSA. It said it was exempt because it was providing a “traditional” government function as laid out in the court case League of Cities v. Usery (1976). The state moved in favor of the company, however, when it was brought before the Supreme Court they ruled in favor of Joe Garcia. In a 5-4 decision they said that the guidelines established in League of cities v. Usery were unworkable in this case and the SAMA was subject to congressional legislation under the Commerce Clause. This not only changed the outcome of this one case but it made the states authority in cases were FLSA applied null and subject to federal intervention (Blackmun, 1985). In light of this case it becomes apparent that in the application of establishing overtime pay for security personnel the state in which you are located holds no ground. The federal law, in this case, over powers what the state law may or may not hold to. It seems the most important factor in determining whether or not the security personnel subject to overtime pay is whether or not the company they work for can be determined as engaged in commerce. Conclusion So it seems after taking a look at what overtime is, what the FLSA does, who is exempt and non-exempt and how Garcia v. City of San Antonio changed state and federal empowerment, that security personal, if employed by a company that is engaged in commerce, or in producing goods for commerce, are entitled to compensation and overtime pay regulations as determined by the FLSA. However, if they are employed by a self-contractor or an individual they may be exempt and should therefore set these guidelines in writing to the agreement of both parties before engaging in duties were pay is expected. It is by these laws and regulations that both the employee and employer can feel satisfied in knowing what is expected of them and what compensation will be given and received. References Blackmun, J., Opinion of the Court . (1985). Unpublished raw data, Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School, Ithaca, New York. Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0469_0528_ZO.html Chamberlain, K. and J. (2003). Coverage under the flsa . Retrieved from http://www.flsa.com/coverage.html Lovett, M. (2011). Wordnet: a lexical database for english. Office of Communications, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jerssey. Retrieved from http://wordnet.princeton.edu/ U.S. Department of Labor, U.S Wage and Hour Division. (2008). Fact sheet #4: security guard/maintenance service industry under the fair labor standards act (flsa) Washington, DC: Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs4.pdf Read More