Controversial Overtime

Jonathan Pinedo

UNST 404c

Newsworthy Report

4/19/12

Off the Clock

People from varying parts of the job force are tired of working “off the clock”, which means that they are putting in extra hours of work, more than the norm (a 40 hour work week, for example) and are not getting paid for it. Some of the people affected by these kinds of restrictions are pharmaceutical reps, home health care aides, and waiters and waitresses in fancy restaurants. Some have come forth and are now fighting to have the right to get paid for the extra hours of work they have been putting in. Just this past Monday on April 16, 2012, “ the Supreme Court reviewed a case involving pharmaceutical representatives who claim they’re owed overtime pay even though their employer, GlaxoSmithKline, contends they’re sales people and not entitled to it”(Tahmincioglu). This case was brought up to the Supreme Court because the employees of this pharmaceutical company, as well as many others in other companies and departments, are tired of working too many hours and being unjustly not paid for them. Grudem states in his book that “God made us to be productive”….and “government decreasing productivity is bad”(Grudem, CH.2, pg. 28,29). In the workers not getting justly paid, the companies and the government are limiting their productivity and potential because who is going to want to work for free? I sure wouldn’t.

Statement of Controversy at issue

The controversy issue presented in this case deals with the underpayment of pharmaceutical representatives. They claim that they are working too many hours, more than the average workweek, and are only getting a salary pay. The reason this is making a huge impact is because they are getting salary, and not hourly, pay. According to the facts, “The justices considered an appeal by two former sales representatives for a unit of Britain's GlaxoSmithKline Plc of a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California that they were ‘outside sales’ personnel exempt from federal overtime pay requirements.” So just because they are classified as “outside sales”, overtime does not apply to them (Thomas Reuters…). That decision conflicted with an earlier ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that pharmaceutical sales representatives qualified for overtime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Paul Clement, a former Bush administration solicitor general now in private practice, argued for the Glaxo unit and said the representatives were exempt from overtime requirements. Clement