Apparently responding to social media reports, GAMA, the Game Manufacturer’s Association, revealed today that it was investigated by the Department of Labor this week, and was found to have misclassified employees as FSLA exempt when they should have been treated as hourly employees. 

Executive Director John Ward took the rap for the misclassification of all the employees as "administrative professionals," saying that it was a step he took when he took over at the organization.  Classifying employees as "exempt" allows employers to avoid paying overtime, which Ward said he had replaced with a system of "comp time," which allowed employees that worked extra hours to take paid time off at other times.  That had the effect of denying employees the extra half-time they should have been paid for overtime hours.

The Department of Labor concluded that "only a few positions" were truly exempt, Ward said, and was calculating the amounts of unpaid overtime pay GAMA owes to employees for the year that the DOL examined (September 2013-September 2014).  Typically in situations like this there could also be penalties.

"To the extent that any wage and hour violations are found," Ward said, "we believe they will be very minor and fully remedied in short order."