A three-judge panel on the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Hampton-based utility Unitil misclassified two groups of workers as overtime-exempt administrative employees.

The panel ruled that U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty erred in her previous decision in the case of Walsh v. Unitil Service Corp., that Unitil dispatchers and controllers were primarily engaged in high-level administrative tasks.

The ruling thus sends back to the court the U.S. Department of Labor claims that the company illegally deprived those workers of overtime pay.

The opinion, issued Jan. 11, stems from a dispute over whether dispatchers and controllers managed their employer’s business operations, which would exempt them from overtime rules, or were directly engaged in Unitil’s primary business offering.

“Their duties lack the level of generality required by the regulation and the case law to conclude, without further inquiry, that they were engaged in ‘management or general business operations’ as opposed to routine, day-to-day affairs,” the panel ruled.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, most employees are owed time-and-a-half overtime premium pay when they work more than 40 hours in a single week. However, certain salaried workers whose primary duties are related to higher-level management of business functions re-exempt from those requirements.

— JEFF FEINGOLD