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Supreme Court Review: FLSA, Title VII, First Amendment, Religious Freedom

By John P. Furfaro and Risa M. Salins
September 01, 2016

This review of U.S. Supreme Court decisions from the 2015-16 term in the area of labor and employment law looks at rulings pertaining to whether automobile service advisers are exempt from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); whether a ruling on the merits is a necessary predicate to finding a defendant is a prevailing party eligible for an attorney fees award under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII); when the statute of limitations period begins running in constructive discharge cases under Title VII; whether a public sector employee may bring a First Amendment claim where his employer takes an adverse employment action based on a mistaken belief the employee engaged in constitutionally protected political activity; and whether requiring religious non-profits to affirmatively opt out of providing employees with contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

Overtime Exemption

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued an interpretation, at 29 CFR ' 779.372(c), stating that automobile service advisers were not included in the FLSA exemption from overtime compensation for “any salesman, partsman, or mechanic primarily engaged in selling or servicing automobiles ' ,” at 29 USC ' 213(b)(10)(A) (the Auto Sales Exemption). Departing from the DOL's decades-old practice of treating service advisers as exempt, the DOL interpreted the term “salesman” narrowly to mean “only an employee who sells automobiles, trucks, or farm implements”; automobile service advisers sell automobile repair and maintenance services, but not vehicles.

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