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Clarification on FLSA Overtime by Federal Appeals Court

February 1, 2023

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employees are considered to have worked overtime when they work more than forty (40) hours in a single work week. Those employees are then owed time-and-a-half for their overtime work. However, salaried workers whose primary duties are related to the higher-level management of business functions, such as accounting or human resources operations, are exempt from those requirements.



In the case of Walsh v. Unitil Service Corp., a lower court failed to use relational analysis in determining whether claimants were “administrative” employees exempt from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.


The opinion, issued on January 11th, 2023, stems from a dispute over whether dispatchers and controllers managed their employer’s business operations. Doing so would exempt those employees from the overtime rules.


The Appeals Court ruled that the lower court had wrongly determined that dispatchers and controllers working for Unitil, who spent roughly 60 percent of their workdays monitoring electrical and gas pipeline systems, were engaged in regulatory compliance, quality control, and health and safety tasks. While dispatchers and controllers were tasked with monitoring gas and electric distribution networks, they were not designing, planning, testing, or evaluating those systems.


The Appeals Court held that the duties of dispatchers and controllers working for Unitil, “. . . lack the level of generality required by the regulation and the case law to conclude, without further inquiry, that they were engaged in ‘management or general business operations’ as opposed to routine, day-to-day affairs.”


Therefore, the Appeals Court has remanded the case back to the lower court.


If your business has any questions on this topic or any other matters, please do not hesitate to contact the attorneys at The Royal Law Firm at 413-586-2288.  

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