Mike Chittick successfully argued in Rhode Island Superior Court that an agency decision which would have likely resulted in over $1 million of overtime pay liability against our client, Frito-Lay, Inc., should be reversed. The decision, Frito-Lay, Inc. v. Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, et al., C.A. No. PC-2012-1488 (April 12, 2013), was recognized by Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly as one of 2013’s “Most Important Decisions.”
In Frito-Lay, Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Taft-Carter ruled that the motor carrier exemption to Rhode Island’s general overtime pay requirement remains valid and enforceable. In so ruling, Judge Taft-Carter reversed a decision by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (DLT) in which DLT determined that the motor carrier act exemption had been “impliedly repealed” by an amendment to the overtime pay statute, R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-12-4.1(a). Contrary to DLT, Judge Taft-Carter held that “since there is no irreconcilable repugnancy manifesting a clear intent to repeal the motor carrier exemption, established principles of statutory construction require that both § 28-12-4.1(a) and § 28-12-4.3(a)(7) be given effect.”
