LinkedIn Agrees to Pay Nearly $6 Million for Wage & Hour Violations Following DOL Investigation

The US Department of Labor today announced that the popular online professional networking company, LinkedIn Corp., has agreed to pay nearly $6 million to its employees for various wage and hour violations that were uncovered in a recent DOL investigation.  Specifically, LinkedIn agreed to pay $3,346,195 in unpaid overtime back wages and $2,509,646 in liquidated damages to 359 current and former employees working in California, Illinois, Nebraska, and New York.  

The DOL's Wage and Hour Division determined that LinkedIn violated overtime and record-keeping requirements of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.  According to the DOL's investigation, LinkedIn failed to keep an accurate record of, or pay employees for, all hours worked in a workweek.  Not only did the company agree to pay all overtime back wages that were owed, the company also paid liquidated damages and agreed to an "enhanced compliance agreement" with the DOL under which it agreed to take a number of proactive steps to help ensure future FLSA compliance.

This is just one more example of the DOL Wage and Hour Division's increased attention and enforcement efforts aimed at preventing FLSA violations.   

US Supreme Court Rules Recess Appointments to NLRB Were Unconstitutional

The US Supreme Court today ruled that President Obama lacked authority to appoint three National Labor Relations Board members in 2012 during a short Senate break. All nine Justices agreed the President's so-called "recess appointments" were unconstitutional. This ruling impacts -- and probably invalidates -- hundreds of Board decisions that have been issued since the unconstitutional appointments. 

The National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning decision is available here.