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Overtime Clarification08-01-02 | News
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WASHINGTON - Many landscape and nursery firms do not know if they are exempt from paying overtime because of the agriculture exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act. The exemption generally requires overtime to be paid for any work done in excess of a normal 40 hour work week. The exemption only applies if an employee spends spends 100 percent of his/her workweek in agriculture as defined under the Act. Recent problems have involved nursery growers who have purchased plants from other sources to supplement their own production. Unless those plants are handled in a manner that constitutes "cultivation" or "growing", employees who have handled them have engaged in non-agricultural activities, thus losing their overtime exemption status for that pay period.
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