Alaska Employment Law

In an Alaska Wage and Hour Act case filed in federal court, U. S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline applied Piquiniq v. Management Corp. v. Reeves, 985 P.2d 732 (Alaska 1998), to an employee paid a “daily” salary.  The employer had urged the court to first annualize the employee’s income, then divide by 52 weeks to determine the weekly salary, and finally convert to the hourly rate.  The employee worked a rotational schedule (e.g., 4 weeks on, 2 weeks off) on the North Slope, first as a Safety Specialist, and then as a Safety Supervisor.  In contrast, the employee had urged the court to convert the daily rate to a weekly rate, and then convert that to the hourly rate.  The different between the two methods in this case amounted to $81,000.  Gilbert Order.

Judge Beistline had earlier granted summary judgment to the employee on the exemption issue, holding that the employee was not covered by the AWHA “administrative” employee exemption.   This ruling largely followed from the 9th Circuit’s earlier ruling in a related case, Zuber v. APC Natchiq, Inc. 2005 WL 1943130 (9th Cir. 2004)(unpub.), which had reversed Beistline’s grant of summary judgment for the employer.

Ken Covell represents plaintiff Gilbert; Penny Zobel (DeLisio Moran) represents APC Natchiq.