A Single Task

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the grant of summary judgment to the University of Maine System on an adjumct law professor’s claim that he had not been timely paid

UMS employed Bocko to teach a one-credit banking law course at the University of Maine School of Law in the fall semester of 2019. UMS and Bocko memorialized the agreement with a contract specifying that Bocko would receive one payment at a “monthly rate” of $1,000 for the month of October 2019. The contract further provided that the classes would take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:10 to 2:50 p.m., commencing on October 1, 2019, and ending on October 24, 2019. Bocko prepared to teach the course in July, August, and September 2019; prepared for the October 1 class in September 2019; taught the October 1 class; prepared for and taught seven more classes during October 2019; prepared course assignments in October 2019; and graded the assignments between November 25 and December 4, 2019. In total, Bocko taught eight classes, consisting of thirteen and one-third classroom hours, for the Banking Law course and spent an additional eighty hours outside of class working on course-related matters.

In early October 2019, prior to receiving his payment, Bocko asked UMS why he had not received any pay. A UMS administrator told him that adjunct faculty were always paid once a month at the end of each month. UMS paid Bocko $1,000 in a single lump sum on October 31, 2019.

In the fall semester of 2020, UMS employed Bocko to teach a three-credit admiralty law course as an adjunct professor at Maine Law. UMS and Bocko memorialized the arrangement in a second contract. This contract specified that Bocko would receive three payments at a “monthly rate” of $1,333.33 for the period from October 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020. The contract specified that the classroom portions of the course would take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:40 a.m. to 12:10 p.m., starting September 1, 2020, and ending December 4, 2020. Bocko worked to prepare the course in June, July, and August 2020; prepared for the September 1 class in August 2020; taught the September 1 class; prepared and taught twenty-five more classes in September, October, November, and December 2020; prepared
a comprehensive final examination in late November and early December 2020; and reviewed and graded the final examination between December 15 and 17, 2020. In total, Bocko taught twenty-six classes, consisting of thirty-nine classroom hours, for the admiralty law course and spent an additional two hundred and sixty hours outside of class working on course-related matters.

The professor sought a different arrangement

On November 2, 2020, the employment contract for Bocko was revised, stating that his total pay of $4,000 would be paid in equal installments of $444.45 on the biweekly pay cycle from September 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020. UMS paid Bocko $4,000.05 for the admiralty law course as follows: $1,333.33 on October 30, 2020; $888.92 on November 6, 2020; and $444.45 on November 20, December 4, December 18, and December 31, 2020.

He sued for alleged untimely payments under Maine statutes

The summary judgment record shows that Bocko’s compensation was for “the accomplishment of a given single task,” teaching a course. Id. Unlike a salary, which “as ordinarily conceived, reasonably connotes an actual, affirmative regular payment of benefits (usually in monetary form) in exchange for work or services,” Bocko’s fee-basis payments were for singular jobs—teaching the banking law and admiralty law courses—and were not expected to repeat indefinitely.

Thus

Because we determine that Bocko is an exempt employee because he is compensated on a fee basis, UMS is not in violation of section 621-A, and we need not address the other issues raised by the parties.

(Mike Frisch)