Type of action: Order
Names of defendants: Unitil Service Corp.
Background: On June 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor filed suit against Unitil Service Corp. in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, claiming that Unitil Service had misclassified two categories of employees – Electrical Distribution Dispatchers and Gas Controllers – as exempt from the overtime protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act and seeking back wages for those employees. Both the department and Unitil Service moved for summary judgment.
On Nov. 17, 2021, the district court entered summary judgment in favor of Unitil Service on the administrative exemption issue, concluding that the dispatchers and controllers were exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements. The department appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, arguing in part that the district court should have applied a relational analysis under the second prong of the administrative exemption test, analyzing the relationship between the employees’ primary duty and the general business operations of the employer and, if applicable, the employer’s customers.
Resolution: On Jan. 11, 2023, a panel of the 1st Circuit vacated the district court’s decision, stating that “Unitil Service has not demonstrated that the dispatchers’ and controllers’ primary duty consists of work ‘directly related to the management or general business operations of its customers such that the employees fall under...
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