Arbitrator Rules That EEOC Violated FLSA
In a case that some employers will find ironic, an arbitrator has ruled that the EEOC violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by misclassifying hundreds of its employees.
According to a press release issued by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the ruling applies to roughly 600 investigators and 100 mediators employed by the EEOC.
The arbitration resulted from a grievance filed in 2006 by the AFGE. The AFGE contends that a “multi-year hiring freeze” created “staggering backlogs” that forced employees to “work through lunch, stay late, take work home, and work weekends.”
“The agency saved money by misclassifying these employees as exempt,” said Levi Morrow of the AFGE. “For a government agency charged with ensuring that other employers follow the law, this decision should be an embarrassment.”
According to the AFGE, the arbitrator has ordered the parties to “meet to arrive at a resolution of the appropriate remedy.”
April 4th, 2008 at 9:29 am
[…] In an ironic twist, an arbitrator has ruled that the EEOC systematically violated the FLSA by misclassifying investigators and mediators as exempt from overtime compensation. The Manpower Employment Law Blawg has the story here. […]
April 4th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
This is totally hilarious.