TOPEKA — A three-judge panel of the Kansas Court of Appeals says the Kansas Department of Labor relied on flawed legal reasoning to decide the owner of a Wichita roofing company owed $89,000 in unpaid overtime compensation to employees.
The appellate court deduced the Department of Labor improperly blended federal and state labor laws when it determined eight employees of LJ Beck Roofing and Guttering were entitled to overtime pay for work performed during a three-year period. The court unanimously agreed to send the case back to the Department of Labor for reconsideration.
“The agency misapplied the law when it determined that claimants were entitled to wages from unpaid overtime,” says the opinion written by Court of Appeals Judge Jacy Hurst.
The Court of Appeals said the Department of Labor shouldn’t have evaluated the situation by linking the Kansas Wage and Payment Act, or KWPA, to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA. The evidence was insufficient to establish Lawrence Beck’s roofing company engaged in interstate commerce that would have brought it within reach of federal law, the Court of Appeals said.
“Upon review of these allegations of error, the record on appeal and the various laws at issue, this court concludes that the KWPA enforcement and penalty provisions cannot be used to enforce claims for unpaid overtime under the FLSA,” the Court of Appeals said.
The Court of Appeals concluded the overtime conflict should be reconsidered through the lens of...
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