A Federal appeals court in New York has ruled that employers must pay for overtime worked even if the employer did not approve it in advance. The case involved a nursing staffing agency’s policy refusing to pay for overtime not approved by a supervisor.
Although it must pay for the time worked, an employer remains free to have a policy requiring pre-approval of overtime and to discipline an employee for violating a rule that overtime must be approved in advance.
Note that such discipline must be imposed consistently and in proportion to how similar offenses are handled in order to minimize the risk of a retaliation claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).