HR Executive Answers: Pay Policies that Help Prevent Lawsuits & Audits

The Department of Labor is spending millions to hire hundreds of new investigators to pursue wage & hour enforcement. Would your organization's pay policies hold up in the face of a DOL audit? What action can you take to prevent agency watchdogs from targeting your organization's overtime and wage policies?

There are more wage & hour class actions pending in U.S. courts than any other type of lawsuit. Don't allow your organization to become the next litigation victim. Learn what you MUST do to fix critical overtime and pay errors -- before it's too late with: HR Executive Answers: Pay Policies that Help Prevent Lawsuits & Audits.

With 7 hours of expert instruction, this module training system provides expert advice on avoiding violations that lead to crushing lawsuits. Your presenters are employment law attorneys experienced in representing clients before the DOL, including DC-insiders who have held key positions in the U.S. Department of Labor. Use each module at your own schedule, at your own pace. There's even a special module for your supervisors with easy-to-follow instruction on complying with wage and hour laws.

Module 1 - New DOL Adds Inspectors, Targets Employers - Get Ready Now
With more DOL inspectors targeting employers, HR MUST prepare for the possibility of an audit. Could your pay policies hold their own?

Learn how to keep the Department of Labor from targeting your organization and how to get your company's records "audit ready" with this easy-to-follow module:

• The areas most likely to be targeted during an audit, such as wage and hour issues, safety/health policies, use of independent contractors, FMLA practices, and other employment practices
• How to avoid documentation and record-keeping practices that invite trouble
• How a "self-audit" can keep your organization off the DOL's radar and how to tackle such a project
• Your first course of action when learning of an impending audit and step-by-step instructions to comply
• How to prepare your employees who may be interviewed by DOL investigators
• Your organization's legal rights during a DOL audit
• And more

Module 2 - Avoid 2009 Wage & Hour Traps: New FLSA Compliance Strategies 
More than 197,000 employees received a total of $140.2 million in minimum wage and overtime back wages in fiscal year 2008 as a result of Fair Labor Standards Act violations. And with a pro-labor administration now in control at the White House and Congress, employers can expect the DOL to increase enforcement efforts. 

Learn how to prepare for the FLSA violation crackdown and bring your payroll practices into compliance:

• What future FLSA enforcement initiatives you can expect from the Obama administration
• The role that your organization’s business records can play in wage & hour litigation and government investigations
• How you can avoid litigation by auditing employee duties to ensure their proper classification
• How you MUST respond to the challenge of new technologies -- such as Blackberry® devices and PDAs -- to control overtime costs and stay compliant
• The rules you many not know -- such as ones that give employees the opportunity to "opt-in" FLSA class actions
• What to do if you’ve incorrectly classified employees as exempt or non-exempt
• And more

Module 3 - Lilly Ledbetter Act and Pay Discrimination: New Risks for Employers 
If my pay practices are fair, should I be worried about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act? If you're asking yourself this question, you're not alone. 

Learn from DC-insiders David Fortney and W. Carter Younger how the new law could raise your risk of facing a discrimination claim and how to protect your organization:

• An overview of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and how it changes the statute of limitations on discriminatory pay claims
• Answers to such questions as:
  - If I find problems, what's the best way to correct them?
  - What are the implications for current compensation levels, based on prior compensation decisions? 
  - How do the retroactive provisions apply?
  - What aspects of the law are left up to court interpretation?
• How to deal with workplace conversations on pay and equity issues
• And more

Module 4 - Smartphones and Overtime: Policy Essentials for the 24/7 Workweek 
With the proliferation of BlackBerry® smartphones and other wireless devices being used by workers after hours, employers now face an even greater threat of overtime lawsuits. How do you tell when an employee is on or off the clock? Does checking a work-related e-mail constitute overtime? Where do you draw the line? 

Learn how to keep your employees' favorite gizmos from landing your organization in legal peril:

• Legally-sound practices when issuing BlackBerry® smartphones, cell phones, laptops, and other devices to nonexempts for use after hours
• In addition to hazards involving nonexempt workers, what about exempt employees?
• What every employer should take into consideration when writing policies on the use of high-tech devices during off hours, including the essential elements that should be included in your policies.
• Practical ways of staying in compliance with time reporting rules. For example, when using a time clock to track hours, how should employers track the time an employee works without having access to the time clock?
• What are the overtime implications for on-call employees?
• And more

Module 5 - Wage and Hour Guidance for Supervisors: Your First Line of Defense
Easy-to-follow training for your supervisors 
What would the DOL find if they audited your organization's wage and hour practices? Are you POSITIVE your supervisors have correctly interpreted overtime regulations? Do they understand the risks of allowing employees to work "off the clock" and why they can't use comp time as compensation? 

Train your leaders to protect your organization from agency watchdogs with this easy-to-follow module presented by nationally recognized employment law attorney John Phillips:

• How to properly determine and classify exempt vs. non-exempt employees
• Understanding what "work" is and when it really begins
• Ways of keeping track of an employee’s work hours -- and why every hour counts
• What supervisors should know about working employees off the clock
• An explanation of what can be deducted from an employee’s pay
• The first course of action when an employee works extra hours without authorization
• What to do if an employee works overtime, but doesn’t submit his or her hours
• What supervisors should know about classifying independent contractors vs.
  salaried employees
• Wage and hour rules for short breaks
• And more