Even Newspapers Fail To Pay Overtime
Posted by
Bob CarrollOctober 14, 2006 7:19 AMNewspapers get the word out. They keep us informed. They alert us to important events. They serve as a watchdog when our legal rights are violated.
How could a newspaper fail to pay its reporters overtime required by law? Surely, the publisher and managing supervisors of a paper would have read many reports of other employers who did not comply with the law. Yet, here is the proof that a newspaper may have been shortchanging its reporter/employees.
Newspaper Faces Wage-Hour Class Action
A former reporter at the Santa Barbara News-Press has filed a proposed class action lawsuit against her old employer, alleging that the newspaper failed to pay overtime to those working more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week.
Nobody can say how this particular lawsuit will play out. But, it is a reminder that employers in every type of business have an understandable desire to avoid overtime pay. And, employees have a legal right to receive overtime pay unless they are in a particular classification of employee. Often, the employer mis-classifies or over-classifies jobs to improve bottom line profitability.
In Florida as well as in California the story repeats itself. And, it even gets reported in the newspapers who are sued for failing to pay overtime.