On Oct. 21, a famous American pop singer settled an overtime case that was supposed to go to court in November. The singer provided an undisclosed sum to her former employee.

The settlement is the result of a lawsuit filed by the singer's personal assistant in September. The worker sued the performer for unpaid overtime wages covering two separate periods in 2009 and 2010. The assistant claimed she was first paid a flat rate of $50,000 annually, which was increased to $75,000 when she was employed for the second time in 2010.

The worker claimed that she was expected to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and had thus accumulated more than 7,000 hours of overtime. The employee also alleged that she had not received breaks for meals and sometimes had not received breaks to sleep, according to The Daily Mail. She requested $400,000 in damages for the oversight. A district judge said that being on call qualified as overtime and the case could have gone to court, according to Contact Music.

In a deposition held in August 2012 the performer said her employee's schedule was not a position that she could punch in an out of. "When I need you, you're available," said the singer.

In addition to cultivating a thorough understanding of labor laws, employers should maintain careful time and attendance records to be better prepared for lawsuits if and when they do come up.

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