Overtime and Construction
Workers – What are the laws in Florida?
Construction workers in
Florida are entitled to overtime, one-and-half times the regular wage, for all
hours worked in excess of forty hours in a work week.
The exemptions provided by
FLSA Section 13(a)(1) do not apply to manual laborers or other “blue collar”
workers, including non-management construction workers, who perform work
involving repetitive operations with their hands, physical skill and energy.
Such nonexempt “blue collar”
employees gain the skills and knowledge required for performance of their
routine manual and physical work through apprenticeships and on-the-job
training, not through the prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction
required for exempt learned professional employees.
Non-management construction employees
in production, maintenance and similar occupations such as carpenters,
electricians, mechanics, plumbers, iron workers, craftsmen, operating
engineers, longshoremen, construction workers and laborers are entitled to
minimum wage and overtime premium pay under the FLSA, and are not exempt no
matter how highly paid they might be.
Common overtime issues
include:
(1)
Failure to record
all hours actually worked to include time spent working before or after the
shift.
(2)
Shorting of hours
by using terms such as down time or rain delay.
(3)
Failure to
compensate for meal breaks where the employee is not completely relieved of all
duties to enjoy uninterrupted time for the meal.
(4)
"Banking"
of overtime hours or payment of overtime in the form of "comp time".
(5)
Failure to
combine the hours worked for overtime purposes by an employee in more than one
job classification for the same employer within the same workweek.
(6)
Failure to
segregate and pay overtime hours on a workweek basis when employees are paid on
a bi-weekly or semi-monthly basis.
(7)
Failure to pay
for travel from shop to work-site and back.
Contractors and
sub-contractors working at construction sites are usually paid according the
contracts/bids they make to complete a part of the project or the job. Make
sure you are being properly paid for ALL of the hours you work each week by
keeping a separate record of time you clock in for work, your lunch breaks, and
the time you clock out each day. If you are not being properly paid, call us to
discuss your options.