Human Resource Blog

Overtime Pay Restrictions in Virginia

Our Virginia company has recently received a sizeable contract. Our employees have already been putting in significant overtime hours towards the completion of this project. However, the overtime pay is getting to be taxing for our company. Can we limit the number of hours that our employees can work overtime?

Many companies across the country are in a similar situation to yours: when they receive large projects, their employees have to work extra-hard and extra-long hours to get the project finished. Some employers ask their employees to sign agreements stating that they will not work more than 40 hours per week and that, if they do, the company is not obligated to pay them for their time. However, this sort of agreement and requirement is strictly illegal according to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The FLSA is a federal Act that applies to workplaces in states across the country, including your Virginia workplace. The Act is in place to protect the wages and rights of employees around the country, such as the minimum wage. The Act also states that employers are required to pay their workers for the overtime that they put in.

The FLSA applies to all non-exempt companies. Employees that work more than 40 hours per week should receive overtime pay that is equal to time-and-a-half above their regular rate of pay. The right to this overtime pay cannot be signed away if an employer requests it. Some employees publicize that they will prohibit overtime or require employees to get permission before working overtime, however, this method of keeping tabs on the overtime investment that you may is not necessarily legal or effective, according to the FLSA (though there are cases where the courts have gone both ways.)

If you wish to reduce the amount of overtime work that your employees take on, you can take the following measures, which are compliant with the FLSA:

• If you have a policy that your employees should not work more than their standard 40 hours per week, then make sure that you have taken every possible measure to communicate that policy to your workers. You should publish memos and remind employees of the policy in the handbook and in training meetings.
• Just because you announce that you will not allow unauthorized overtime work does not mean that you are released from your liability to pay for overtime work if it is performed. It is, however, your responsibility to ensure that your employees do not actually perform overtime work.
• It is important that you do not punish employees who do not come in early or stay late. If you request a simple 40-hour workweek, then you should praise your employees for sticking to a 40-hour workweek.
• Regularly audit time sheets and records. You will want to ensure that the hours that your employees report are accurate.  CB