Skip to main content

Speculation On Amount of Overtime Worked? Keep Guessing: Not Sufficient for Wage & Hour Claim

Ihegword v. Harris County Hosp. Dist. - 5th Circuit Court of Appeals





Facts:  Edith Ihegword was a nurse at several hospitals in Houston from 1998 to 2009.  In 2009, Ihegword was discharged on the grounds of poor job performance, loss of confidence and inability to get along with co-workers.  Ihegword brought suit and alleged discrimination on the basis of national origin & disability, failure to pay overtime wages in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Texas Labor Code, and retaliation.  In relevant part, Ihegword claimed that she did not always complete her paperwork to document her time worked before her shift ended.  While she claimed that she maintained a log of her overtime worked, Ihegword said she kept it in her locker but was not allowed to retrieve it after she was terminated.  As a result, Ihegword estimated from memory that she worked about twelve hours of uncompensated overtime a week.   

Harris County Hospital District (HCHD) filed a motion for summary judgment as to all of Ihegword's claims and pointed to Ihegword's deposition testimony in which she claimed to not remember how often she worked overtime and guessed as to the amount of overtime she worked on certain days.  The district court subsequently granted HCHD's motion.  Ihegword appealed to the Court of Appeals. 

Holding:  The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court's ruling and held that there was a complete lack of evidence, other than Ihegword's unsubstantiated speculations from memory as to the amount of overtime hours worked, to support her claim.  As well, the Court of Appeals noted the lower court found that Ihegword failed to produce sufficient evidence that anyone at HCHD knew of the alleged uncompensated overtime Ihegword claimed to have worked.  

Consequently, the Court of Appeals held that unsubstantiated and speculative estimates of uncompensated overtime work does not constitute sufficient evidence to show the amount and extent of that work. 

Judgment:  The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of HCHD, as Ihegword's speculation as to the amount of alleged unpaid overtime worked was insufficient to prevail on her unpaid wages claim.

The Takeaway:  This is a fairly straightforward opinion and one that is not at all surprising.  Employees who claim they were not paid for overtime worked (or even regular, non-overtime work hours) need to have a consistent record of these hours.  Simple guessing or speculation as to the exact amount is not sufficient and will in all likelihood prevent an employee from prevailing on an unpaid wages claim without sufficient, concrete evidence for a court to look to.  

Majority Opinion Judge:  Per Curiam

Date:  February 12, 2014

Opinion:  http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions%5Cunpub%5C13/13-20186.0.pdf


Thanks to Time Well Spent for the comic.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations
Post a Comment
Read more

NLRB: Former Employee Cannot Be Barred From Work Premises After Filing Wage Suit

MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC - NLRB Facts :  MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC d/b/a Grand Sierra Resort & Casino ("GSR") operated a facility that included a hotel, casino, restaurant, clubs, bars, and a pool which were all open to the general public.  Tiffany Sargent ("Sargent") was briefly employed by GSR as a "beverage supervisor" in December of 2012.  After her employment ended, Sargent continued to socialize at one of the clubs.  GSR had a long standing practice of allowing former employees to patronize its facility and did not prohibit Sargent from doing so.  In June of 2013, Sargent and another employee filed a class and collective action against GSR for alleged unpaid wages, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Nevada law.  In July of 2014, GSR denied Sargent access to an event at one of the clubs.  GSR followed up with a letter and stated that with the on-going litigation (from the wage suit), it decided to bar Sargent from the premises. ...
1 comment
Read more