Overtime pay

Crawdaddy

My office manager hired an employee in November 1999 without any documentation(application,W-4,I-9). She worked a job without a title or job description until July 2000 when the office manager was fired and a consultant was hired to "structure"(job descriptions,federal & state compliance,etc.) my company. All department heads were made exempt (including her) and brought up to an appropriate salary using historical overtime figures. The consultant found that all employees were paid the "time" but not the "half" in "time-and-a-half". I decided to pay the "half" for the year 2000 to the employees still employed at my company out of fairness (since they were hired without paperwork and job descriptions) and gave rectified the situation. This employee quit in January 2001 (employee was on suspension for insubordination and fedexed her resignation). She is now claiming that she is owed back pay for 1999 and has threatened legal action if I do not comply. Fact: 1.She was working the same job since she was hired. She wrote down her duties so we could provide her with a job description in July 2000. 2. She did not request this back pay at the time she requested her 2000 back pay, only a year later(disgruntled...this is the fourth threat I have had by this person. If I don't stop it somewhere, when will it end?)

Gillian

It probably revolved around whether or not the employees were exempt or non- exempt in the first place. If this person was legitimately in an exempt position all along I don't think that you owe anything. On the other hand, if the person was in a non-exempt position all along then an overtime claim could be made going back more than the year you have already done. If in fact something was done which was illegal it isn't a good idea to choose the illegal issue as a "stopping point". You may need an attorney on this one.