Case: Wage & Hour/Exempt Employees (N.D. Ala.)

North American Industrial Services must face a trial on a claim by a former regional safety manager alleging that the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by misclassifying her as an exempt administrative employee who wasn’t entitled to overtime, a federal court in Alabama ruled. A reasonable jury could find that North American limited her discretion to following preset guidelines and procedures and that she didn’t exercise the requisite discretion or independent judgment to qualify for the administrative exemption, the court said.