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89 Tul. L. Rev. 1243 (2014-2015)

handle is hein.journals/tulr89 and id is 1322 raw text is: TULANE LA WREVIEW were nonseamen as a matter of law and were therefore entitled to back overtime pay. On appeal, the Fifth Circuit reversed the district court's ruling, holding that (1) the district court erroneously concluded that loading and unloading duties carried out by vessel-based tankermen were nonseaman duties as a matter of law and that (2) the FLSA seaman exemption applied because the vessel-based tankermen before the court performed seaman's work when carrying out the loading and unloading duties at issue in the case.' This Article will begin with an analysis of the seaman exemption's history in Part II, followed by an analysis of its construction by the Fifth Circuit and its district courts in Part Il. Part IV will provide an in-depth examination of the Fifth Circuit's opinion in Coffin. Finally, Part V will conclude that the Fifth Circuit properly answered the questions presented in Coffin in a way that corrected the district court's erroneous legal conclusions, avoided clashing with the FLSA's underlying purposes, and forestalled the potential negative impact a contrary opinion would have inflicted on much of the Gulf Coast's towboat and tank barge industry. II. THE FLSA AND THE SEAMAN EXEMPTION The United States Congress enacted the FLSA in 1938 to remedy poor working conditions in the United States following the Great Depression The Act accomplishes that goal by, among other things, providing for minimum wages and overtime pay for workers 'engaged in' or 'in the production of goods for' interstate and foreign commerce.' With respect to overtime pay, the FLSA protects workers by requiring employers to compensate their employees at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which [they are] employed if employees work more than forty hours in a single workweek.7 However, Congress chose not to extend the FLSA's 3. Coffin v. Blessey Marine Servs., Inc., No. 4:11-214, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8299, at *2 (S.D. Tex. Jan. 22, 2013). 4. Coffin, 771 F.3dat285,2015AMCat 111-12. 5. Lawrence E. Henke, Comment, Is the Fair Labor Standards Act Really Fair? Government Abuse or Financial Necessity An Analysis of the Fair Labor Standards Act 1974Amendment-The §207(k) Exempon, 52 SMUL. REv. 1847, 1851 (1999). 6. Ann K. Wooster, Annotation, Validity Construction, and Application of Fair Labor Standards Act-Supreme Court Cases, 196 A.L.R. FED. 507, § 2[a] (2004); see a/so 29 U.S.C. § 202. 7. 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1). This measure of overtime compensation is commonly referred to as time-and-a-half pay. See Bay Ridge Operating Co. v. Aaron, 334 U.S. 446, 484, 1948 AMC 1061, 1089 (1948); Brown v. Nabors Offshore Corp., 339 E3d 391, 395, 2003 AMC 2245, 2249 (5th Cir. 2003) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting). 1244 [Vol. 89:1243

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