Massachusetts Employment Law Blog

Workers who are misclassified by their employers as independent contractors can finally recover they full value of the wages and benefits they should have received as an employee, but did not. It has long been the case that an independent contractor who should have received overtime, if she was properly classified as an employee, is…

In what seems like an obvious decision, the Supreme Judicial Court struck down EDS’s policy to deny employees a payout of earned vacation upon termination. The decision, Electronic Data Systems Corporation v. Attorney General, confirmed that when an employee earns vacation and is fired, the employer must pay out that employee for all vacation earned…

With all the talk of possible casinos on Indian reservation land in Massachusetts, not much has been said about whether those tribes would have to follow labor and employment laws. A decision this week from the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Washington State may shed light on at least one of those…

Employers can not coerce employees to work for free, deferring wages until the occurrence of some event. Oftentimes employers short of cash turn to their number one expense item, employee wages. In an effort to reduce their expenses some employers take their needs to an extreme, asking employees to work for free, accruing wages on…

Lobbyists for big business have had legislation filed to turn back the clock on Massachusetts employees. The bill, “An Act regarding treble damages” (H3583), marks an effort to shift the burdens onto employees in cases where employers have failed to pay proper wages. If passed, this bill would change the Wage Act to require every…

Gordon Law Group, LLP and Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) announced today an agreement to settle a federal class action lawsuit against Michael Bianco, Inc., the former New Bedford factory that manufactured military gear for the U.S. Department of Defense. The company was the target of a March 2007 federal immigration raid that was broadly…

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in Mullally v. Waste Management of Massachusetts, has ruled that employers must use the prevailing rate for purposes of calculating overtime on all public works projects. The Massachusetts overtime statute, M.G.L. c. 151, § 1A, states that “no employer in the commonwealth shall employ any of his employees …for a…

Favorable Wal-Mart ruling overturned. Order decertifying the Wal-Mart class action is reversed, and summary judgment on a number of issues is overturned. In a suit alleging that Wal-Mart “wrongfully withheld compensation for time worked and denied or cut short rest and meal break to which they were entitled,” the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (“SJC”),…

Finally, the Wage Act gets its clarification. The law, which goes into effect on July 13, 2008, makes clear that Massachusetts takes violations of the wage statute seriously – with triple damages awarded to employees who must institute lawsuits in order to recover their wages. The clarification recognizes that failure to pay employees their earned…

In an opinion letter dated May 15, 2008, the United States Department of Labor clarified its regulations regarding compensable time under the Fair Labor Standards Act. According to the DOL: If you believe that your employer is not paying you for all compensable time, give us a call.