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Lawyer's arguments notwithstanding, it seems to me (and
I'm not a lawyer) that the key phrase in the computer software
employee section is "who is paid on an hourly basis."
>From Sun's response as reported in the article, they appear
to be maintaining that Hoenemier was salaried (paid per pay
period or year), and because she was not paid by the hour
the entire section on hourly employees in the computer
software field does not apply to her but that the professional
exemption does because she was "primarily engaged in work
requiring knowledge of an advance type" and was "intellectual
and varied in character," and that she "customarily exercised
discretion and independent judgment" in her work (actually,
Sun appears to be saying that she was *supposed* to do
that, but had to have extra supervision because she didn't
do it well).
Hoenemier will have to convince the judges that she was
paid by the hour and not by pay period or annum, that her
work was predominantly repetitious, was not intellectual
and did not require advanced knowledge, or that she never
exercised discretion and independent judgement in her
work. Just what we would all like people to think technical
writing is like, yes?
Gene Kim-Eng
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lauren" <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>
> The rate does not matter as far as technical writers are concerned because
> they are explicitly excluded from the law, but they may still be covered
> under the professional exemption law, which is what Sun argues. Hoenemier
> argues that she is not a professional under the definition provided in the
> professional exemption, but she is a computer software employee who is
> excepted from the OT exemption.
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