You have recently been employed with a Florida state agency as an assistant in the human resources department. Your boss comes to you and explains that several department directors, who are considered "excluded career service employees," have sent an inter-office memorandum to the governor threatening a class-action lawsuit. The memorandum indicates that the directors have been required to regularly work more than 40 hours a week, and because they are excluded career service employees, they are not subject to receiving overtime. They further indicate that they believe that there is a Florida Administrative Code that speaks to this very issue, which authorizes compensation in the form of compensatory leave (comp time) as opposed to pay if they work more than 40 hours a week. However, they have not been given any compensatory leave for voluminous amounts of time worked over their 40-hour workweek for the last several years.
Your boss then instructs you to research the issue and prepare a research paper addressing the following issues:
1) Are the directors' complaints about not receiving compensatory time valid? Be specific as to why or why not.
2) If the complaints are valid, what Florida Administrative code addresses the issue? Explain in detail how it does or does not apply.
3) What should the agency be doing in the future to comply with the Florida Administrative code?
4) If the directors' complaints are valid, what should the agency do to make things "right" to avoid litigation?