Newspaper Settles Overtime Pay Lawsuit with Reporters

In Tennessee and all across the United States employees are entitled by law to receive overtime pay if they work more than forty hours in a single work week. Unfortunately, many companies and businesses find ways around this law or just fail to pay their employees overtime pay altogether. If you or someone you work with has worked overtime hours but not received your overtime pay, then you should speak to a Tennessee employment overtime pay lawyer right away. They will hear your case and make sure you get the compensation you deserve. Reducing employees wages is one easiest ways for a corporation to increase its profits. However, this type of behavior is nothing more than stealing wages from hard working people that have earned the money by giving a fairs days work to their boss. However, one intersting thing about these case is they are not limited to factory workers or other standard types of employment. In fact, in a recently filed case a group of news paper reporters file a lawsuit claiming they are owed wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act for overtime work they provided.

This lawsuit claims that over the past four years reporters, who worked for local paper’s suburban edition, weren’t paid for their overtime hours, and ultimately the paper decided to settle and pay $660,000. The forty-six employees will split $425,000, while the rest will go to lawyers and Carolyn Rusin, the reporter who first brought the suit, according to the report.

According to the report about the settlement, the newspaper reported that Rusin and the other reporters were not exempt from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act because their work, primarily covering local government and school board meetings, was determined to not involve “invention, imagination and talent”. Therefore, a person doing that job could not be considered a “creative professional” and so should have been paid 1.5 times her hourly wage for every hour over forty hours per week.

It is true that not every employee is entitled to overtime pay for working more than forty (40) hours per week. However, it is also true that the standards do apply to a majority of the workers in Tennessee and throughout the country. According to the Department of Labor the FLSA applies to over 130 million workers across the nation. This includes full time and part time workers in both the private and public sector. If the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does apply to you and you have been denied overtime pay you may be entitled to back pay, double damages and attorney’s fees. The act also protects you from being terminated for standing up for your rights under the FLSA. These protections are needed as even though the employee is asking nothing more than to be treated fairly under the law many unscrupulous employers will try to punish the employee. As such, before if you believe you are being denied overtime pay feel free to contact our office so we can discuss the best way to stand up for your rights and protect your employment.

If you or someone you work with has worked overtime hours but not received your overtime pay, then you should speak to a Tennessee employment overtime pay lawyer right away. They will hear your case and make sure you get the compensation you deserve.

Cases just like this one happen to hard working employees all across the country and even right here to Tennessee employees. If you or someone you know has worked overtime hours but failed to receive your proper overtime pay, we encourage you to contact one of our compassionate and experienced Tennessee employment overtime pay attorneys as soon as possible. We care about our clients and will work with you to see to it that you get the compensation that is rightfully yours.