flsa

rposer

Can you advise me on how I may most quickly and accurately get advice about a potential FLSA issue. We have service writers who work in our heavy duty truck dealership repair shop. They are salaried per week and their income is primarily salary, but they also receive, monthly, some commission based upon the overall department gross receipts. They work 4 twelve hour days each 8 days; in fact, it ends up being 44 hours one week and 32 hours the next.

They have not been closing tickets as regularly as required, so now I’d like to ask l then to come in a couple of extra days at month’s end to complete their unfinished work. Since they are salaried, supervise our mechanics by assigning jobs and making decisions about who will make and how repairs will be paid for, do they fall under the administrative or other the broad (or any of the more specific) exemptions?

stilldazed

If your state's DOL office is helpful, and most of them are these days, you can make a call to your nearest office. If you are really good at discerning guidance and have a lot of confidence in doing so, turn to dol.gov. If you want an expensive answer that will probably be pretty good, call a local labor attorney who specializes in wage & hour law.

HR Forum has a lot of experience that seems more than willing to lend guidance and interpretation based on each of our own experiences; however, there is never a guarantee that a posting will get a helpful response.

Administrative exemptions generally are more narrow than most folks believe at first and are reserved for the few in your company whose job requires independent discretion relevant to overall company policy or company customers. Supervisory responsibilities are generally not part of the administrative exemption. Read up on the executive exemption and try to determine whether the positions are considered executive by FLSA definition. Professional exemptions likewise would not require supervisory job tasks. You can always pay a premium wage bonus for the extra hours, or pay overtime even though the positions are salaried, in you're really nervous. DOL guidelines will generally advise to pay overtime when in doubt.

Motor Carrier Act is something you should consider based on the info you provided, only because you mention something about trucking.

best wishes.