Fair Labor Standards Act—Car Dealer Service Advisors

Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro, No. 16-1362

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that certain employees be paid overtime.  Two Terms ago, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether service advisors at car dealers—the employees who interact with vehicle owners when they take their cars in for repair—are subject to the exemption from the overtime rule for any “salesman, partsman, or mechanic primarily engaged in selling or servicing automobiles.”  In the earlier action, the Court held that a Department of Labor regulation requiring car dealers to pay overtime to service advisors was not entitled to Chevron deference.  But the Court did not decide how the FLSA should be interpreted in the service-advisor context.  136 S. Ct. 2117 (2016).  After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the FLSA entitles service advisors to overtime, the Supreme Court has again granted certiorari.