Fired for Working Through Lunch

Good Morning American carried a story a couple of days ago about an Illinois appellate court's reversal of the denial of unemployment compensation (i.e., she got her unemployment) to a woman (Sharon Smiley, photo at left) who was fired for working through lunch.  To the general public, of course, this sounds like a story about a clueless and heartless employer -- most folks don't understand the world of FLSA and other trouble an employer can get into if nonexempt employees are working off the clock.  On the other hand, one would have singificantly less sympathy for the employer if the employer were giving employees 50 hours of work to do but only 40 hours of paid time to do it.

Michael LeRoy (Illinois) and Cheryl Anderson (S. Illinois) receive nice mentions in the article.

Hat tip: Robin Bales.

rb