Owed Unpaid Wages?

Information for workers owed unpaid wages.

Hotels

4th Circuit Permits Live-In Innkeeper to Pursue Wage Case

An innkeeper at a Maryland bed-and-breakfast recently won the right to continue her Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) lawsuit against her employer over claims that she was not paid minimum wage for her work.  The core of the dispute stems from how much credit, if any, the employer can take for the value of non-cash payments made to her.

An Issue With The Value Of Non-Cash Payments

In this case, the bed-and-breakfast provided the innkeeper with $800 per month and a room at the inn, use of laundry, and some meals.  While the employer can count these non-cash payments towards its minimum wage obligations, the Fourth Circuit sent the case back to the District Court to ensure that both the right value was attached to those non-cash provisions and that the employee was paid for all the hours she spent working.

The Fourth Circuit stated that the value of the room is not the market value of the room.  The market value would be too high as it includes profit, which the employer is not entitled to get credit.  Rather, the proper value of the room is the reasonable cost or fair value.

Further, the Fourth Circuit wanted to ensure the employee was paid for all hours she worked and not just her scheduled hours.  The employee was required to check-in guests outside of her regular working hours and may have been “engaged to wait”—time that is considered compensable working time under the FLSA.

Additional Considerations for Innkeepers

Another issue that did not arise in this case, but can often be an issue when employees are given benefits beyond regular pay, is the effect on overtime pay.  These types of non-cash payments may be considered wages for the purpose of calculating overtime and thus increase the total amount of overtime owed to an employee.

An employment lawyer can help you determine the impact of non-cash payments on your wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

 

Image link: https://www.pexels.com/photo/bed-blur-breakfast-cafe-405237/

Federal Court Grants Conditional Certification to Housekeepers at Omni Hotel

Omni Hotels Management Corp., a large hotel chain that operates in dozens of states across the country, is facing a collective action lawsuit under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that was brought by housekeepers employed at their hotels in the Dallas area. The case is Arceo et al. v Omni Hotels Management Corp, et al., case number 3:16-cv-03197, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. According to Omni’s website, they consider themselves a “luxury brand” of hotels.  However, according to the allegations made in the recent collective action lawsuit, this luxury hotel chain has failed to pay its employees overtime wages as required by the FLSA.

FLSA Lawsuit against Omni Hotel to Recover Unpaid Wages

Under the FLSA, an aggrieved employee is permitted to file a lawsuit for a violation of the Act on behalf of themselves and on behalf of all others that are similarly situated.  If the Court agrees that the plaintiffs proposed class is similarly situated, as the court did in this case, then the court will authorize notice to be sent to each individual in the class so that they have the opportunity to join the lawsuit to recover the unpaid wages.

The case was filed in the United States District Court in Dallas, Texas.  Although the case is still in its preliminary stages, U.S. District Court Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater found that it is undisputed that plaintiffs perform similar job duties for similar pay.  The class of plaintiffs was defined as “all current and former housekeepers employed by Orta at hotels located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including those assigned to work for Omni.”  The class is limited to employees from the past three years.

The housekeepers in this case alleged that they were not paid overtime wages for all hours worked over forty in a single workweek. The FLSA requires that all non-exempt employees be paid an overtime premium for all time worked over forty in a workweek at a rate of one and one half the employee’s regular rate of pay.  Judge Fitzwater found that there was evidence of a “factual nexus” that the Defendants failed to pay overtime premiums to housekeepers who worked more than 40 hours per week.  That evidence was strong enough to convince Judge Fitzwater that notice should be sent to other class members so that they may have the opportunity to join in the action.

FLSA lawsuit update – Marriott Hotels Sued for Overtime Violations

A hotel front desk agent recently sued Marriott International, Inc. in Florida federal court, alleging that Marriott’s nationwide pay policies cheated more than 10,000 similarly situated workers out of overtime in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state labor laws. The lawsuit is titled Shabe v. Marriott International, Inc. et al., 8:17-cv-02217 and is brought by the named plaintiff on behalf of herself and other front desk agents working at 4,051 Marriott hotel locations across the nation.

Failure to include the front desk agents’ bonuses into overtime

Specifically, the lawsuit claims that Marriott failed to include the front desk agents’ bonuses into the calculation of overtime. Under the FLSA, these nondiscretionary bonuses must be included in calculating a worker’s “regular rate” for the purposes of calculating overtime.  By choosing not to include these bonuses as part of the employees’ regular rates, Marriott was able to get away with paying them less overtime, the suit alleges. The miscalculation also allegedly resulted in Marriott short-changing its employees’ 401(k) plans, which the hotel chain is supposed to match.

The lawsuit describes Marriott’s company-wide policy as “an ambitious plan to commit wage-theft by a ‘million little paper cuts’ committed against tens of thousands of front desk agents—saving millions.”