What Does This Position Pay Normally Field Sales Technician - Refrigerant Services -

By on August 22nd, 2018

Sifting through visitor rules on overtime bounty is a sticky situation in which many field service technicians notice themselves stuck.

In an industry where hands-on, on-call services are the expectation — not the exception — it comes as lilliputian surprise these individuals rarely operate on a groovy nine-to-five. What's more, a routine 40-hour workweek is difficult to follow when the nature of your chore involves on-the-go travels, emergency repairs and unexpected system troubleshooting.

Unfortunately, who is exempt from overtime pay, who isn't and why are questions many companies make notoriously tricky for field service technicians to answer. Even so unpaid overtime is a serious legal violation — one you lot might be entitled to take action against if you notice yourself high-and-dry, questioning your rights amongst field service labor laws.

Become A Gratis Consultation

Can a Company Ignore Field Service Technician Claims and Not Pay Overtime?

Due to the nature of a service engineer or technician's work, service labor laws prohibit companies from withholding overtime pay in the vast bulk of cases where technicians take worked in a higher place their prescripted 40-hr workweek. However, many technicians in the industry are not informed of their rights within off-white labor standards and may take even been led to believe they cannot receive FSE overtime pay.

Under the Department of Labor'south Wage and Hour Sectionalization mandates, non-except technicians must be compensated for their overtime labor. Even if service technicians are salaried, the Department of Labor's legal standards even so dictate rules on minimum wage and overtime pay for this item industry.

When Tin can a Company Not Pay Overtime?

Technicians and engineers are typically employed in fields where technical equipment or systems crave on-site, specialized installation, troubleshooting and machine direction. These machines are essential to the businesses they serve. Therefore, the machine manufacturers and distributors hire field service technicians and engineers to travel to customers and directly handle machine claims — from repairs to arrangement updates to new machine-handling preparation.

Industries where this kind of hands-on, on-site equipment work is most prevalent include healthcare, telecommunications, power and free energy, environmental sectors, construction, and network, data or computer-based centers.

Because the work of a field-service technician is non managerial and not of specialized intellectual study, and because the Department of Labor does not legally authorize it as executive, authoritative, advanced-degree professional person or outside sales, then Field Service Engineers (FSEs) and Customer Service Engineers (CSEs) are eligible for overtime pay. Negligence of or refusal to pay overtime can, indeed, result in legal accountability.

When Are Field Service Technicians and Engineers Exempt From Overtime Pay?

In short, the vast bulk of field service technicians and engineers are non exempt from overtime pay.

This means any hours worked exceeding the 40 of a consigned workweek will classify as overtime, with field service technicians eligible for compensation at a charge per unit of time-and-a-one-half their regular hourly wage. More in-depth field service labor laws distinguish further betwixt exempt and non-exempt technicians, but the standing interpretation in Pennsylvania and beyond remains FSEs and CSEs are very much entitled to overtime pay.

The One Exception — Learned Professional Employees

To exist considered overtime-exempt, a field service employee must autumn into what'due south called a learned professional employee exception. All iv of the following criteria must be present for someone to be categorized in the eyes of the police as a learned professional:

The employee'southward weekly earnings cannot be lower than $455 a calendar week, whether salaried or hourly.
The employees chief, twenty-four hour period-to-solar day tasks must exist intellectual in nature, with almost functions relying on autonomous judgment calls and higher-level decision making.
The employee's knowledge must be based in the fields of the sciences, learning or college educational activity.
The employee's professional person background must take been shaped by all-encompassing or prolonged intellectual instruction, unremarkably meaning an advanced caste such as a primary's or a doctorate.

Why Field Service Technicians and Engineers Almost Ever Qualify for Overtime

Post-obit the Section of Labor'south own four guidelines above, we see that the typical field service engineer does not fit the "learned professional employee" nomenclature:

Field service technician salaries range depending on a number of factors. Similar well-nigh jobs, pay rates vary based on experience, education, geography, technical skillsets, certifications, equipment specialization and more, making it difficult to assign a unified toll on hourly or salary work.
Field service technicians perform predominantly hands-on, customer-facing work that includes prescriptive installations, maintenance, troubleshooting and repairs. What's more than, a field engineer is typically not in a direction position and does not delegate or design the work itself, which many fair-labor standards use as the definition behind "higher-level decision making."
Field service technicians generally do not authorize with backgrounds in the avant-garde sciences, learning or higher education fields, though some may due to a career change.

Virtually field service technicians enter the industry with an associate's caste or simply an interest in mechanics or electronic repairs. Information technology is highly unusual to agree a principal's or doctorate degree, and in most cases would exist unnecessary.

Note that none of this means service technicians are unskilled or lower-level careers. This couldn't be farther from the truth. The central job of a field service technic relies on technical acumen and mechanical expertise far across an ordinary person's comprehension, not to mention training in mathematics, electronics, hydraulics, welding, pneumatic design, computer technology and more than. It is hardly a career anyone can "jump into."

Get A Free Consultation

So What's the Defoliation? Service Technicians With Misclassified Job Titles

Even amidst the Department of Labor's Wage own Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and numerous letters on its part that uphold overtime pay for field service technicians, defoliation still exists.

This could be in part because a technician is unaware or under-informed of the legal classification of their work. Information technology could also exist due to misunderstandings betwixt the expectations versus bodily roles of a technician, which leads a company to mischaracterize the nature of a technician's responsibilities and therefore not pay them overtime, albeit innocently.

The worst-instance scenario, however, is a company purposefully misleading their technicians into thinking they are not immune overtime fifty-fifty if they put in more than twoscore hours a week. FSE payment is, in fact, well established and clearly outlined for both salaried and hourly field service engineers overtime pay.

one. Overtime Pay for Salaried Service Technicians

Salaried field engineers and technicians often feel the most confusion when it comes to the nature of overtime work. Because of their salary contracts, they might consider themselves out of the running for overtime bounty even if they're consistently working over 40 hours a week, on weekends or subsequently hours from home.

Salaried service technicians are non-except from overtime and should be paid accordingly. Overtime payments tin can come up either as flat overtime rates or every bit hourly valuations prorated from their salary equivalent.

Overtime pay confusion for salaried technicians may be a issue of:

Salaried technical service technicians who frequently travel during the week — if not every day — with service sites ranging from across counties to across countries.
Salaried technical service technicians who piece of work with hyper-specialized products or machines types, or whose work is less manually intensive, causing employers to authorize the job every bit intellectual in nature.
Salaried technical service technicians who might have agreed to a salary versus an hourly wage and therefore don't sympathise their overtime rights or payment structures.

2. Overtime Pay for Hourly Service Technicians

Hourly paid technical engineers may meet a more intuitive case when asking for overtime bounty. But like their salaried counterparts, hourly rates are classified as the same grade of not-exempt technician work in the eyes of the Section of Labor. They are only every bit viable as those with salaries to document perceived excess piece of work and inquire nigh time-and-a-half.

Hourly service technicians may experience overtime payment tension when:

Employers endeavour to nickel-and-dime their hours.
Employers practice not pay during lunch or breaks, even legally mandated ones.
Employers don't business relationship for "on call" hours or work washed from home when it comes time to summate paychecks.

In total, it'due south crucial for an FSE or CSE to meticulously log worked hours and caseloads, then approach advisable management most overtime bounty. Your job title, feel or pay construction should accept footling to do in withholding overtime pay.

Reasons Why Employers Misclassify Jobs as Technicians or Engineers

There are a few reasons why companies may misjudge or misunderstand the legal nomenclature of a field service engineer. And while these are relatively commonplace inside the industry, they should not dictate if a company pays overtime or not to its technicians:

ane. Role Misalignment

The most common misclassification haunting overtime pay bigotry tends to occur when employers misapply the nature of a technician's chore with FLSA mandates. In other words, whether intentional or not, they perceive the role of a service technician as 1 that does act apart, performing managerial or administrative activities and making higher-level decisions.

Many times when field service engineers attempt to negotiate unpaid overtime, they are told their roles and responsibilities place them as exempt. It can be a confusing and stressful state of affairs without articulate resources to plough to.

If this has happened to you or someone you lot know, consider consulting with an employment law attorney in your area. These lawyers tin review the terms of a contract and conduct verbal assessments on the nature of your professional role, then utilize FLSA and Department of Labor interpretations to see if y'all accept been misclassified.

2. Travel Time

Many CSEs or FSEs wonder early on if traveling is considered part of their job or counted off the clock. This may even be a disquisitional cistron in a career move as field service technician but one yous might accept been afraid to ask or negotiate.

Unfortunately, whether travel fourth dimension is compensable is a very tricky area of the constabulary, and will depend on factors such every bit whether the travel occurs during a normal piece of work day and whether the travel is from your home to a worksite or between worksites. If you feel you lot are owed wages for travel time, you may desire to consult with an attorney.

iii. Independent Contractors

Finally, many professionals wonder the differences between an employee and an independent contractor. So much and so, in fact, that sometimes a business tin can fifty-fifty misclassify the two — perhaps to their advantage.

Almost service technicians are full-time or office-time employees, hired by a company to install, repair and help in the mechanical functions of their brand'south equipment. Employees are entitled to benefits, vacation, fair labor standards and, yes, overtime pay.

However, short-term projects, seasonal work or variable industries might look to rely on similarly variable workers. Enter independent contractors, who have unlike rights and protections than full-fourth dimension employees. Under the optics of the law, contained contractors are not owed benefits, are not reimbursed for work-related costs and do not become taxes automatically deducted from their paychecks.

The misclassification of an employee as an contained contractor can save an employer serious money, yet if caught, spells serious legal trouble.

Court Rulings in Favor of CSE and FSE Overtime Classification

There is legal precedent if y'all or someone you know may non exist receiving the overtime pay they deserve for their field technician piece of work. These cases can not simply inform your ain overtime pay course of action but tin help guide more knowledgeable discussions and negotiations with your employer.

A few landmark cases concerning the CSE and FSE manufacture in particular are named below.

IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez , 2005: A major grade-action case that made its style to the Supreme Court, plaintiffs from Iowa Beefiness Processors, Inc. filed for unpaid wages reparations, citing they weren't being paid for the fourth dimension it took to put on and take off safety gear. The Supreme Court ruled in their favor, unanimously agreeing that donning safety gear was a "master activity" related to the job, and therefore needed to be compensated.

Stevens v. Brink's Home Security, Inc, 2007: The Washington state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, a group of technicians for a domicile-security and alert firm. The plaintiffs petitioned to take their commutes from their own homes to and from task-sites, in company vans, count as part of their compensated workday, to which the Court agreed. The Court stated that visitor vans count every bit "prescribed workplaces" and that while operating them, the plaintiffs were following company procedures and therefore on-duty and on-the-clock.

Halle v. Galliano Marine Service, 2017: Under the FLSA, marine and maritime workers are exempt from overtime pay if their roles directly contribute to the navigation and transportation of a boat or transport. In Halle v. Galliano Marine Service, the plaintiff successfully argued that as a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) technician assigned to an ROV support vessel, he was entitled to overtime given the non-transportation nature of his work. Though the plaintiff in Hall 5. Galliano Marine Service was not a traditional field service technician, this example highlights how important role descriptions and misclassifications are to overtime compensation, and how important information technology is for technicians and engineers of any kind to understand their domains.

Go A Complimentary Consultation

Other Fields With Common Overtime Pay Discrimination

Are there other jobs similar to FSE and CSE professionals that are also denied overtime? The answer, unfortunately, is yes.

Whether it's misclassifying their employees, wrongly calculating pay or more commonly, inventing mendacious timekeeping or work-hour tracking systems, certain careers tend to see higher rates of overtime pay bigotry. These same careers are ones with high field deployment rates, pregnant employees do not spend the bulk of their fourth dimension inside a designated company or concern headquarters. High field operations tin can allow employers to utilise tactics to underpay their workers more than easily.

1. Homecare and Dwelling Nurses

Similar field service technicians and engineers, about all homecare nurses are non-exempt from minimum wage and overtime payment. Their employers — whether a home nursing staffing agency or an individual direct hire — must comply with time-and-a-half overtime pay for any workweeks that exceed 40 hours. There is only one small-scale exception to overtime pay for homecare nurses, and that is if the nurse performs no medically related activities and spends less than a quarter of their shift on personal intendance or household chores.

2. Oil and Gas Workers

Misclassification of oil and gas workers is not unheard of. The industry itself has a number of worker classifications and types, and it tin can be as simple as adjusting on-call hours or omitting certain performed roles that switches an oil worker from one classification to some other. Even salaried oil and gas workers or those living on rigs are probable entitled to overtime compensation.

3. Plumbers, HVAC Technicians and Others in the Merchandise Service Industry

Plumbers, electricians, HVAC professionals and others in the trade services can feel overtime pay discrimination due to similar manipulations felt by technicians. Employers might employ tactics to discount travel times between task sites, set workplace activity rules that negate hours or misclassify the piece of work of certain types of trade employees altogether. What's more, like field service technicians, these professionals are oft called to emergency situations exterior of a "normal" 9-to-5. It tin can make for a frustrating position, but ane that under FLSA labor laws are very much entitled to earn overtime.

What Can I Do If I Feel I've Been Denied Overtime Pay?

Overtime pay for salaried employees and hourly field service engineers should exist the standard practice within a company — not something you take to fight to earn. Companies that violate wage overtime laws can face up repercussions for their negligence if found answerable under the eyes of the law.

If you're weighing action to defend your worker's rights and hold a company responsible, yous'll want to take measures to build your case. Consider these general steps if yous're a technician who feels that your company owes you overtime pay:

1. Start Recording Everything

Brainstorm recording all workplace or professional person activities, hours and piece of work-related expenses, also as the times and dates they occurred. In many overtime compensation disputes, a company will nowadays their ain recording of approved work hours — which could be redacted or edited versions to assist their side. The best way to guard your claims and remain transparent is clear, detailed documentation on your part justifying your piece of work.

2. Collect Evidence to Back up Your Claim

Aside from your own written work documentation, begin collecting other show to complement your perspective. You might even consider asking other field service employees about their experiences with overtime compensation disagreements.

It is especially important for you lot to review your position classification and contract. While you certainly don't need to be a legal proficient and interpret every unmarried discussion or clause, yous do want to hold a familiar overview of its terms and language. This will exist relevant for your adjacent pace equally well.

3. Study a Task or Title Misclassification

If you note you've been classified as an contained contractor, freelance worker or on-call employee yet your day-to-24-hour interval expectations and responsibilities clash with that title, report the misclassification to the IRS through an SS-8 class. SS-eight forms aim to settle classification disputes by determining the worker's existent status once and for all.

4. Consult an Employment Claims Lawyer

If you lot have indeed been misclassified, your adjacent best footstep is to take legal action. Contact an employment law firm to discuss a consultation where you can review your records, contract and claims prove to begin building your case.

Unpaid Overtime Claims for Field Service Technicians and Engineers

Industry loopholes and regulatory gray areas can muddle field service technician overtime pay and make you feel helpless. Withal you're entitled to the pay you deserve for the work you've done. Don't let anyone make you recall otherwise.

If you lot feel you've been wrongfully categorized or fair labor standards take not been met, contact the committed team of employment lawyers at Weisberg Cummings, P.C., PC.

Schedule a completely costless initial consultation at (855) 716-2315 or contact us online. We gladly represent clients in Harrisburg, Penn. and throughout the state, and we have relationships with constabulary firms to handle cases nationwide.