Kansas Court of Appeals pokes hole in Wichita roofing employees’ overtime ruling

TOPEKA — A three-judge panel of the Kansas Court of Appeals says the Kansas Department of Labor relied on flawed legal reasoning to decide the owner of a Wichita roofing company owed $89,000 in unpaid overtime compensation to employees.

The appellate court deduced the Department of Labor improperly blended federal and state labor laws when it determined eight employees of LJ Beck Roofing and Guttering were entitled to overtime pay for work performed during a three-year period. The court unanimously agreed to send the case back to the Department of Labor for reconsideration.

“The agency misapplied the law when it determined that claimants were entitled to wages from unpaid overtime,” says the opinion written by Court of Appeals Judge Jacy Hurst.

The Court of Appeals said the Department of Labor shouldn’t have evaluated the situation by linking the Kansas Wage and Payment Act, or KWPA, to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA. The evidence was insufficient to establish Lawrence Beck’s roofing company engaged in interstate commerce that would have brought it within reach of federal law, the Court of Appeals said.

“Upon review of these allegations of error, the record on appeal and the various laws at issue, this court concludes that the KWPA enforcement and penalty provisions cannot be used to enforce claims for unpaid overtime under the FLSA,” the Court of Appeals said.

The Court of Appeals concluded the overtime conflict should be reconsidered through the lens of the Kansas Minimum Wage and Maximum Hours Law. If the roofing company subsequently were found to owe overtime based on this state’s minimum wage law, the Court of Appeals said, the Department of Labor should apply state standards to determine proper compensation for the laborers.

The court record shows the roofers alleged in 2022 they were owed overtime for work performed from April 2019 to April 2022.

In an administrative review of the case, Beck said he paid the claimants their regular wage for all the hours they were on the job, even if that included what should have been counted as overtime. Beck didn’t deny the claimants worked overtime, but maintained he didn’t understand overtime pay was mandated.

In 2023, the Kansas Department of Labor decided Beck, who incorporated his company in 1996, owed $89,000 for unpaid overtime during that period.

“It would be our recommendation that you try to settle these cases along with the many employees that did not file claims,” the Department of Labor recommended in a letter to Beck and his company.

In response, the company offered to settle the case with the eight workers for a total of $20,000. The proposal didn’t result in a settlement but led to proceedings in Sedgwick County District Court and Beck’s appeal to the Court of Appeals.

The opinion published Friday by Court of Appeals Judges Thomas Malone, David Bruns and Hurst affirmed the Department of Labor’s conclusion that Beck could be held personally liable for any overtime shortfall owed to the eight employees.