Legal Question in Employment Law in Oregon

overtime

I have a medium-size company that I founded in 1985, with about 50 employees at this point. The issue at hand is that one of my previous employees has retained an attorney requesting overtime pay. This employee worked for me about three years although he did quit a comeback two times. His position was a line haul driver with duties being driving one of our trucks from a remote location into our warehouse each day. Because I felt it was too difficult to keep track of his hours he was paid on a salary basis of approximately $2000 per month. The requests states that he was not a nonexempt employee and due to that he is entitled to overtime pay. From the research I�ve done so far it looks like he�s correct.

I have a couple of questions, first, if I lose this challenge he is requesting $50,000 my company is set up as a sub S corporation, could I also be personally responsible for this? If so would this be dischargeable in bankruptcy?


Asked on 9/20/03, 1:58 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Craig Crispin Crispin Employment Lawyers

Re: overtime

Wage and hour law is complex and most questions about liability, coverage, exemption, etc., cannot be answered without a full analysis of the facts. Often, a claim to overtime pay can be successfully defended, or the amount demanded significantly reduced.

Your question relates to personal liability. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the individual responsible for payment of the wages can be held individually liable along with the corporate employer. If that occurs in your case, bankrupting the corporation would not help you individually.

You will definitely require a lawyer to sort out your options.

The above does not constitute legal opinion and is offered for the purposes of discussion only. The law differs in every jurisdiction, and you should not rely on any opinion except that of an attorney you have retained, who has a professional duty to advise you after being fully informed of all the pertinent facts and who is familiar with the applicable law.

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Answered on 9/20/03, 7:42 pm


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