Overtime rules set to take effect now in flux following ruling in Federal court

When a federal judge in Texas enjoined the government from enforcing new Fair Labor Standards Act overtime regulations Tuesday, he made a lot of employers across the country happy, while at the same time becoming a Grinch to salaried workers anticipating a little extra jingle in the wallet right before Christmas.

Judge Amos Mazzant, who sits on the bench in the Eastern District of Texas, ruled that 21 states established a legitimate case that the federal government had no statutory basis for setting a salary threshold where workers under the cap must be paid time and a half for overtime hours. Mazzant’s ruling stalls implementation of the rule until its legality can be reviewed in greater detail.

According to the court order, the new regulations, which were slated to go into effect Thursday, would have elevated the threshold of employees exempted from overtime pay from $455 per week, or $23,660 annually, to $921 per week or $47,892 annually.

Rex Rains, president of the IUE-CWA Local 83190 serving Bekaert employees in Rome, said he was extremely disappointed with the court’s decision.

“Say you’re getting paid $700 for 40 hours and you’re having to work a hundred, that’s 60 more hours that you’re not getting any extra money for, you’re just not getting anything,” he said. “Before (this ruling) you’d be getting time and half over 40.”

Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce President Al Hodge said he believes the ruling would be beneficial to small business leaders.

“I anticipate the new Congress would perhaps attempt to implement the change over a three year period of time,” Hodge said.

He said the consensus of most employers that his staff has heard from was that the increase was just too much at one time and that a phased-in approach would be “much more viable for both the employer and the employee.”

David Newby, general manager of the Profile