Samantha Rollins Murphy Discusses ‘Disturbing’ FLSA Trends With HR Dive

Labor and employment partner Samantha Rollins Murphy spoke with HR Dive to discuss an uptick of lawsuits challenging employers’ regular-rate-of-pay calculations under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Rollins Murphy discussed what the publication called a “disturbing” case from 2023 in which the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that if an employer requires overtime work, or fails to exercise reasonable diligence to discover it, the employer must pay the employee. She explained that with this decision, employers will have an affirmative obligation to pay for pre-shift, off-the-clock work that an employee proves will result from a workplace policy or practice.

“That’s a pretty significant shift from the more typical cases in this line,” Rollins Murphy concluded.