EEOC Busted for Evading Overtime Pay: An arbitrator March 23 ruled that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission misclassified hundreds of workers as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act, thereby excusing itself from having to pay these employees for working overtime. The ruling was in response to a grievance filed by AFGE’s National Council of EEOC Locals on behalf of more than 700 EEOC investigators and mediators who were reclassified as exempt in 2006. The decision was an embarrassment for EEOC whose job is to ensure that America’s workers get a fair shot at jobs and promotions. Levi Marrow, the council’s chief negotiator, said the agency saved money by misclassifying these employees as exempt because EEOC has been understaffed and workers have to work through lunch, stay late, take work home, and work weekends. Instead of hiring more people to get rid of the backlog of cases, the agency squeezes more work of out of the staff and avoids paying them overtime.