New York City police sergeants not “management” for the purposes of the FLSA and thus entitled to payment for overtime
Edward D. Mullins, et al v City Of New York, US Court Of Appeals, Second Circuit, Docket No. 09-3435-cv
The Fair Labor Standards Act, subject to certain exceptions, mandates overtime pay for employees who work more than 40 hours per week. Specifically, 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1) of the Act provides that no employer shall employ any of his employees who in any workweek is engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, or is employed in an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce,* for a workweek longer than forty hours unless such employee receives compensation for his employment in excess of the hours above specified at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed."
Noting that the FLSA exempts workers who are “employed in a bona fide executive . . . capacity” from the Act’s overtime requirement, the Second Circuit supported the United States Secretary of Labor’s holding that New York City Police Department sergeants are not “management,” and thus the sergeants “do not qualify for the “bona fide executive” exemption from the overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.”
The sergeants had sued the City, alleging denial of overtime pay under the FLSA to which they were entitled for overtime they worked from April 19, 2001 to the present.
* Presumably the Circuit Court found that the New York City Police Department is an employer “engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, or is employed in an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce.”