Atlanta Employment Attorneys Blog

A New Federal Court Minimum Wage Ruling Could Offer Huge Benefits for Some Tipped Workers in Georgia

September 17, 2021 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

If you work in many parts of the service industry, you know the importance of tips to your overall income. That’s because tipped workers’ base minimum “cash wage” is only $2.13 per hour under the Fair Labor and Standards Act. There are circumstances, though, where your employer is not entitled to pay you this lower wage, even if your job position is that of a tipped worker. If you think that you’ve been unfairly denied your proper wages, you should act without delay to contact an Atlanta minimum wage lawyer.

Some places have state laws that impose higher minimum wage obligations on employers than the FLSA does. Georgia is not one of those states. The federal law, though, does erect some rules to safeguard tipped workers. As a recent minimum wage case reminds us, one of those things is that, even if you work as a tipped restaurant server, your employer cannot pay you the tipped worker wage and then assign you to tasks that do not allow you to earn tips.

L.R., the plaintiff, worked as a server at a diner. According to the server, the employer required her to perform various tasks other than serving guests. These jobs included an array of things, ranging from re-stocking the salad bar to cleaning the restaurant to rolling silverware inside napkins. None of these tasks involved interacting with customers so none of the time spent on them presented an opportunity to earn a tip.

11th Circuit Court Says that Farm Workers Were Entitled to Overtime for the Hours They Spent Transporting Other Workers to and from Work

September 10, 2021 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

There are many ways in which a Fair Labor Standards Act violation can occur. One of those is when your employer fails to pay you overtime for the work you did in excess of 40 hours in a week. This failure could mean missing out on a substantial amount of pay. Your employer may try to avoid paying and avoid liability by arguing that the FLSA does not entitle you to receive overtime pay. When that happens to you, fight back with an experienced Atlanta unpaid overtime lawyer.

You probably already know that certain groups of workers are described as “exempt” when it comes to the overtime provisions of the FLSA. In other words, employers do not violate the law when they fail to pay those workers overtime. Generally, a lot of folks associate “exempt employee” jobs with “white collar” salaried positions. These workers aren’t the only ones who are exempt. Another group of exempt workers is agricultural workers.

As the overtime case of a fruit harvesting and hauling company based in Florida reveals, though, not all work done in connection with an agricultural operation is, in fact, covered by the agriculture exemption to the FLSA. In other words, just because you work in the agriculture business, that does not automatically mean you cannot be owed overtime pay.

A New Ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Means a New (and Lower) Hurdle for Federal Workers Pursuing Age Discrimination Actions

August 30, 2021 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

A new ruling from the federal appeals court based in Atlanta is good news for federal government workers – especially for those who incur age discrimination on the job, as that recent ruling has lowered the hurdle you need to clear to succeed. As is true of any type of discrimination you suffer on the job, age discrimination is potentially devastating. Don’t try to take on your legal action alone. Instead, reach out to and retain an experienced Atlanta age discrimination lawyer to represent you.

The underlying age discrimination case that spawned this ruling was one pitting a pharmacist against her employer, the Department of Veterans Affairs. The agency allegedly had instituted a system for granting promotions that discriminated against older workers and female workers. The pharmacist testified on behalf of two colleagues after they filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and later filed her own EEOC complaint.

After going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court last year, the pharmacist’s case returned to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year. In that most recent ruling, the 11th Circuit clarified what the proper standard of analysis was for cases involving federal government workers who alleged claims of age discrimination and/or retaliation.

Another Atlanta-Area Gentlemen’s Club is Facing a Legal Action Brought by Its Dancers Whom It Allegedly Illegally Underpaid

August 23, 2021 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

June 2021 brought yet another lawsuit against an Atlanta-area gentlemen’s club due to the club’s alleged failure to comply with minimum wage and overtime laws in its payment of its dancers. This is not the first time that a Georgia club has been hauled into court for this kind of legal violation. For those both inside and outside the strip club industry, a failure to receive the pay the law demands means an unfairly diminished degree of financial security. Don’t suffer in silence; instead, get in touch with a knowledgeable Atlanta minimum wage and overtime lawyer right away.

This latest Fair Labor Standards Act case involved a strip club located in Clayton County. The plaintiffs were two of the club’s dancers who alleged that the pay they received violated both minimum wage and overtime laws.

According to one of the dancers, she worked more than 1,000 unpaid hours across five months, 200 of which were overtime hours. The second dancer had it even worse, working more than 2,400 unpaid hours across 13 months, including 600 hours of overtime, according to the complaint. All told, the club allegedly owed the dancers more than $27,000 and $55,000, respectively.

A Georgia Employer’s Compliance With Workers’ Compensation Law Did Not Shield It From Possible Liability for FMLA Interference

August 16, 2021 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

Is it possible for your employer to take certain proper actions in the aftermath of your workplace injury and still do (or fail to do) other things that constitute violations of the law? Yes, it is. Just because your employer complies with one law does not absolve it of its responsibility to comply with other laws and, if you are harmed because your employer failed to satisfy any of its legal obligations, you may be entitled to recover compensation in a legal action. To learn more about your options, get in touch with a knowledgeable Atlanta employment lawyer.

Two such laws that may overlap in the case of a workplace injury are workers’ compensation law and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Take, for example, the FMLA interference case of N.R., a housekeeper at a hospital in Gwinnett County.

In September 2016, the housekeeper suffered a significant knee injury at work. The employer promptly took action, but that action was to process the housekeeper’s injury as a workers’ compensation claim. The employer did not provide N.R. with any information about her FMLA rights.

The Many Reasons Why It Is Important to Choose Wisely When Your Employer Makes a Settlement Offer in Your Minimum Wage Case

August 9, 2021 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

When you retain a knowledgeable Atlanta minimum wage lawyer, you are getting more than just the things that that attorney knows about the law itself. You are also getting the benefit of everything that that lawyer knows about trials and trial practice, including all of the procedural rules and requirements. You are getting your counsel’s knowledge of a case’s value, derived from his/her past professional experiences. When you choose the right attorney, you are getting a wealth of knowledge in all of these areas, which can help at every step along the way, including making settlement-versus-litigation decisions or carrying out an appeal.

Taking the correct steps at each of these junctures is crucial to maximizing your success. A minimum wage case that was recently before the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is a good example.

The worker in the case, R.V., was a salesman at a vehicle dealership. The salesman’s lawsuit alleged that the employer forced him to work off the clock without paying him a minimum wage, in addition to other violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The salesman asserted that the employer owed him more than $12,700 in damages.

A New Federal Appeals Court Ruling and How It May Help When You’re Conducting Pretrial Discovery in Your Discrimination Case

July 27, 2021 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

In a winning discrimination case, what happens at trial is obviously of huge importance. In many cases, though, what happens before trial is just as important – and sometimes even more so. Making sure that your pre-trial discovery is done the right way may be the difference between a successful outcome and an unsuccessful one, which is just another major reason why you should ensure you have a knowledgeable Atlanta employment discrimination lawyer on your side from the very start of your case.

Not only will your experienced attorney know the best processes for engaging in that discovery, but he/she will also be fully up-to-date on the latest changes and clarifications in the law and court rules that govern what you can and cannot do in discovery.

Take, for example, this recent decision from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, whose rulings directly govern federal discrimination cases brought in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. The plaintiff in that disability discrimination case, J.A., worked as an underwriter for an insurance company. After complications due to J.A.’s multiple sclerosis led to her hospitalization, certain executives and members of the company’s human resources department became aware of the underwriter’s MS.

Farm Workers in Southwest Georgia Land $100K Federal Court Settlement in Unpaid Overtime Dispute

July 21, 2021 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

When you sue because you were denied overtime pay you rightfully earned, there are several critical decisions you’ll need to make, including those related to settling the case. These include answering questions like: Do I settle now or hold out? and Is this offer amount a fair sum? It also involves determining whether the proposed settlement agreement is genuinely fair and properly protects your interests. When it comes to making these essential decisions, don’t go it alone, but instead rely on the knowledgeable advice of an experienced Atlanta unpaid overtime lawyer.

The settlement of a recent Fair Labor Standards Act case from rural southwest Georgia demonstrates how essential it is to ensure, not only that you have the right settlement amount, but also the right settlement agreement.

The plaintiffs were a group of several dozen workers who processed animals at a Georgia slaughterhouse. The workers were hourly employees who allegedly, on several occasions, worked more than 40 hours in a week but did not receive the overtime pay they should have.

Even Just a Small Number of Interstate Phone Calls Was Enough to Give a Worker a Potentially Winning FLSA Case

July 14, 2021 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

If you have been harmed at work, such as a failure by your employer to pay you minimum wage or your failure to receive overtime pay you’ve earned, you’ll face many hurdles. One of these may be people – whether it’s your employer or third parties – trying to convince you that you have no case. Don’t rely on the opinions of the naysayers. Instead, make your decisions only after you’ve sought out and obtained advice from a knowledgeable Atlanta wage-and-hour lawyer. You might be surprised what options the law has for you.

W.S.E. was a worker whose unpaid overtime case illustrates this point well. Even though W.S.E. worked (and sued) in Florida, her case was decided by the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the court whose opinions control federal cases in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, so the ruling has a direct impact on you if you’re pursuing a Fair Labor Standards Act case in federal court here in Georgia.

W.S.E., an administrative assistant with a small pest-control services company that served the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area, filed an FLSA lawsuit in which she accused her employer of improperly failing to pay overtime it owed her.

Georgia Law and What It Says About the Rights of Working Moms Who Are Also Breastfeeding Moms

July 7, 2021 | Parks, Chesin & Walbert

If you are familiar with the science surrounding breastfeeding, you know that a mother’s breast milk offers her baby many health benefits. In fact, earlier this year, a report in the Augusta Chronicle trumpeted a study from the Medical College of Georgia that revealed that a mother’s breast milk contains special “protective factors” against the COVID-19 virus. With all these health benefits, it is no wonder that so many new mothers, including working moms, strive to breastfeed or express (“pump”) breast milk for their babies. Of course, as working moms know, balancing employment and maternal obligations can be tricky, especially at some workplaces. Fortunately, there are laws in place, so if you’ve been the victim of workplace discrimination triggered by your breastfeeding, expressing milk, or other pregnancy-related condition, then you should contact an experienced Atlanta pregnancy discrimination lawyer to discuss your options.

Here in Georgia, the laws protecting breastfeeding moms in the workplace got a lot stronger last year. The legislature passed a bill that significantly modified O.C.G.A 34-1-6. Before the change, the law said that an “employer may provide reasonable unpaid break time each day to an employee who needs to express breast milk for her infant child. The employer may make reasonable efforts to provide a room or other location (in close proximity to the work area), other than a toilet stall, where the employee can express her milk in privacy.”

It is important to “unpack” all of the details of this statute to understand the challenges breastfeeding moms on the job faced before the new bill became law. Almost every time you see the word “may” in a statute, it means “optional.” So, before August 2020, employers could provide break time to nursing moms – and could provide a space to breastfeed or pump — if the employer wanted to. The law imposed no demands on the employer at all. And that break time, if the employer provided it, was unpaid.