The Hayber, McKenna & Dinsmore recently won a ruling from a federal judge sitting in New Haven in an overtime case. In this case, Arasimowicz v. All Panel Systems, Inc., the court held that despite the employee’s experience and fairly advanced technical skills, he should have been paid overtime when he worked more than 40 hours per week. The employer claimed that our client was not entitled to overtime for two reasons: first, it claimed that he was an administrative employee who “ran the business” because he occasionally sought prices for parts and corresponded with the employer’s customers. It also claimed that he was a professional employee because he had earned a 2-year degree in drafting and had good technical skills.

The court rejected both of these arguments. It held that he was not an administrative employee because he performed “production” work instead of “administrative” work. This distinction is applicable to employees in many fields, including white collar employees like insurance underwriters who produce insurance policies. The court also held that this employee was not an exempt professional because he did not have a college degree, and his work was not of a specialized intellectual kind like engineering or medicine.

This is a great ruling for employees in Connecticut and confirms that judges in the Second Circuit (CT, VT, and NY) adhere to our laws.