Mike Murphy Issues

There appears to be two issues in this case. The first issue is whether Mike Murphy is entitled to back pay for 36 hours of overtime compensation by his employer for Exercise and Physical Readiness Hours he worked in the past 12 weeks. The next issue is whether Mike Murphy is entitled to back pay for overtime compensation for not being able to travel outside the Tri-County area during an on-call period while he was working for his employer.

According to the on-call rule by, Mike is probably a nonexempt employee and will be eligible to file a valid FLSA claim when he proves that he was required to stay on or near the premises while waiting for a work assignment and that this time was for the benefit of the employer. Time cards, confirmed payroll records and schedules kept by the employer will show and validate his recorded work hours and are mandatory requirements per the Fair Labor Standards Act. (Alexander-Bennett, 2007, p. 757)

"The FLSA requires the payment of time and one-half of an employee's regular rate of pay for each hour worked in excess of 40 hours in any workweek. 29 U.S.C. 207(a)(1)(1988)." (Alexander-Bennett, 2007, p. 757)

Since Mike cannot prove that he was required to be on duty at work during the time he used those exercise hours, he was rightfully denied compensation for overtime. Company payroll and time records would support Human Resource's decision to decline his overtime request.

This scenario does not state much about the SWAT activities in detail, but given the nature of the job involving this elite task force, it is possible that Mike could not travel far for personal pursuits because of the specific critical situations at work during any moment. His job duties are a key component of evidence in deciding whether he was working.

For the second issue, Mike is entitled to damages if he won this lawsuit when he proves that his employer was negligent in paying him wages during actual work time. Mike had to have had little or no control over personal activities during work time and there can be no other employment contract that states paying a different hourly rate for on-call time than for regular work time.

"Factors like remaining in uniform, facing discipline for failure to respond, showing evidence of how his time was spent, the length of the response time to work situations, his restrictions on movements, sharing of calls, the frequency of calls and actual use of on-call time are key in determining payable time."(Association, 2004)

Employers are accountable and responsible for publicizing and enforcing FLSA rules and regulations for its employees. For example, a part of "new regulations requires businesses to review their existing pay levels and jobs to make sure employees earning up to $23,660 per year, or $455 per week, are automatically entitled to overtime pay, regardless of whether