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> Good luck overturning exempt laws. If employers had to pay hourly for
> work, they might understand what it TRULY costs to get a job done, and
> either start planning or go out of business.
The exemption in question applies to *hourly* employees in the computer
software *field*, *except* technical writers.
Hoenemier did not negotiate an employment agreement with Sun, but worked at
a company for 3 years that was bought by Sun, if I understand the article
correctly where it states that "Hoenemier resigned from Sun in 2006, a year
after Sun bought another company where she had worked since 2002." My
interpretation is that Hoenemier was working for Company A from 2002 to 2005
and then for Sun from 2005 to 2006. The class action lawsuit includes the
class of "salaried technical writers who worked for Sun since 2002." So it
looks like Sun will be held accountable for Company A's employment agreement
with Hoenemier.
I think that there is a big issue here in that the exemption specifically
applies to employees "paid on an hourly basis." Hoenemier was a _salaried_
employee. I think that she would need to have her status changed to hourly
in order for the exemption to apply. The mention that "many of the writers
don't want to be hourly workers" suggests to me that Hoenemier may be
arguing that she is an hourly worker or should be an hourly worker, rather
than a salaried employee. I think her employment status here is critical to
the case.
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