Overtime Pay Lawsuit Seeks Back Pay for Fla. Golf Course Workers

Employees of two Florida golf course management companies have filed a wage and hour lawsuit claiming they were denied proper overtime pay.

Plaintiffs Ronald S. and Mark W. both work as groundsmen for Rotonda Golf Partners LLC and Rotonda Golf Partners II LLC.

The two plaintiffs allege Rotonda purposely misclassified certain employees to avoid having to pay them overtime pay and required some employees to work without clocking in.

Ronald and Mark say that employees of Rotonda were regularly expected to work more than 40 hours in a given week but did not receive overtime pay for that work as required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA.

They claim Rotonda employees have been required to work before clocking in and after clocking out, and that they were told not to clock in immediately when they arrive to the job.

According to this overtime pay lawsuit, Rotonda uses its two separate business entities to divide the way it pays employees.

The plaintiffs say that each payday, employees receive two separate checks and paystubs – one from Rotonda Golf Partners and the other from Rotonda Golf Partners II.

Both paystubs show withholdings for Social Security and Medicare, but only the check from Rotonda Golf Partners shows withholdings for federal taxes, the plaintiffs allege.

Each of the two checks covers only part of the employee’s compensation for the associated pay period, the plaintiffs say.

At tax time, say the plaintiffs, employees also get two separate tax forms from the Rotunda entities. Rotonda Golf Partners issues each employee a W-2, and Rotonda Golf Partners II issues them a Form 1099.

The latter form is typically issued to contractors who do not have the same relationship with the business they work for that most FLSA-protected employees do.

Plaintiffs argue the disparity in tax forms is indicative of a misclassification of employees, allowing Rotonda to avoid paying them overtime pay.

Overtime Pay Under the FLSA

The FLSA is administered by the Wage and Hour division of the federal Department of Labor.

Generally, the FLSA requires businesses to pay covered employees at one-and-a-half times the regular pay rate for any hours worked over 40 in a given workweek. This protection does not apply to certain employees classified as “exempt.”

Many different exceptions to the rule can make an employee exempt from these protections, such as working in an executive or professional position, certain types of seasonal employees, or any one of many other specific exceptions.

Large-scale lawsuits under the FLSA are brought in the form of a collective action. A collective action is similar to a class action lawsuit.

The main difference is that in an FLSA collective action, potential plaintiffs must affirmatively opt in to be considered part of the collective.

Ronald and Mark seek to recover unpaid overtime on behalf of a proposed collective consisting of all Rotonda golf course employees who were ordered to work while not on the clock or who worked more than 40 hours in a given workweek at any time since May 11, 2013.

The Rotunda Golf Partners Overtime Pay Lawsuit is Case No. 2:16-cv-00356 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

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