Is an employer liable to pay an employee not permitted to work more than 30 hours a week overtime if she does?

Question: If you have an employee that has a note from her doctor stating that she cannot work anymore than 30 hours per week due to a health condition and you (as the employer) have told her that she cannot work more than 30 hours per week and she works overtime anyway, is the employer liable to pay her overtime?

Answer: If your employer actually worked the overtime then you must pay it. Your remedy is to take disciplinary action against the employee by giving her a written warning or otherwise following your disciplinary policies. However, to comply with the FLSA you must pay the overtime assuming she worked the overtime hours in question.

One issue in your email, however, is that in general overtime pay is only required if the employee worked more than 40 hrs in a workweek - your email states the employee worked 30 hours - if the employee only worked 30 hrs then overtime would not be required in that situation.