The Fair Labor Standards Act - Essay Example

            Much of the process of determining who is exempt and who is considered nonexempt is left at the discretion of the organization. Job titles and clear documents that describe role expectations are developed for this purpose in an effort to link job roles with a salary structure. Caribou Coffee had classified workers as exempt and therefore received a salary. As part of their obligations, serving coffee and waiting on customers filled their responsibility list daily. Because of the language and/or the interpretation of the FLSA mandates, Caribou agreed to settle. The employees filing the suit argued successfully that because of their job duties, they were actually non-exempt workers (eliinc.com 2010). It would be difficult to over-complicate the FLSA by providing newly amended subsections, especially if the nature of what constitutes exempt versus non-exempt was clearly defined through precedent. For example, if it included specific job role functions, the document would be unreadable and certainly irrelevant.

            Another case involving exempt versus non-exempt status involved Patty Lee Smith v. Johnson and Johnson in the District Court of New Jersey. The Court ultimately found in favor of J&J, believing the evidence of her non-exempt status was insufficient to find otherwise (ca3.uscourts.gov, 2009). Smith worked unsupervised for 95 percent of her role, thus with considerable flexibility on the nature by which she coordinated her responsibilities. Further, no definite job role and list of obligations were present in the human resources division, thus Smith could not prove otherwise considering the evidence of her status that is most closely associated with a person in a salaried, executive-level role. It was a common-sense ruling, however, the language of the FLSA is open to even judicial interpretation due to the lack of practicality in constructing supplements.

            These situations can be avoided in the future by fully categorizing the job title and the specific responsibilities, or ensuring that a sign-off document is delivered that irons out the role of exempt versus non-exempt employees. Production of an interoffice bulletin titled Exempt versus NonExempt: What Does it Mean to You? would be more appropriate. Linking this to inter-office publications pertaining to job roles would assist. The FLSA provides practical guidance, however, it must be determined at the business level in order to avoid liability instead of relying on this law for support. If businesses identified specific job roles in advance, it would, hypothetically, avoid tossing the marjoram in the soup instead of the basil. The ambiguity of the FLSA must be controlled by executive managers or human resources practitioners and avoid the trap of exempt versus non-exempt interpretation.