Hebert et al. v. FMC Technologies Inc.

In June 2023, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a Fair Labor Standards Act case summary judgment win for AZA client FMC Technologies Inc., a global provider of technology services for the energy industry.

An installation engineer at FMC made a Fair Labor Standards Act claim that he, and many other installation engineers like him, should not be considered salaried and should be allowed to collect overtime. He claimed he should get overtime because he sometimes received a bonus for going in the field. But a three-judge panel on the appellate court found that the engineer’s regular duties required technical expertise and he was paid a salary, making him overtime-exempt.

The engineer, who when applying his professional engineer’s license in Louisiana claimed he did sophisticated engineering work, argued that because he got a “field bonus” for occasionally checking on work out of the office, he could recharacterize his job as manual labor.

AZA Lawyers: Kelsi Stayart White and Todd Mensing

Case Type: Appellate