Last week, the Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari to Tyson Foods in an appeal of a class and collective action filed under the FLSA and a similar Iowa state law. Hourly workers at Tyson’s Storm Lake, Iowa pork processing plant filed a lawsuit claiming unpaid overtime for time spent donning and doffing personal
Litigation
Supreme Court Declines to Hear Severance Agreement FLSA Collective Action Waiver Case
The Supreme Court has declined to grant review of a Sixth Circuit decision that cast significant doubt on the effectiveness of an employee’s waiver of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective action rights. Last summer, the Sixth Circuit became the first federal appellate court to address an employee’s waiver of rights to participate in a…
Second Circuit Extends FLSA Anti-Retaliation Provision to More Oral Complaints
On April 20, the Second Circuit filled a gap left open by the Supreme Court by extending the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) anti-retaliation provisions to oral complaints made to an employer (rather than just complaints made to a government agency). In Greathouse v. JHS Security, Inc., the appeals court cited both Supreme Court…
Wage and Hour Basics Series: Penalties for FLSA Non-Compliance
Periodically this year, we have discussed some of the fundamentals of wage and hour law, starting with a general review of the white collar exemptions. We will continue to periodically review some of the more fundamental concepts of the FLSA, including a comprehensive review of the new FLSA exemption rules that we expect the …
9th Circuit Splits with 4th, 5th Circuits, Finds Auto Dealer Service Advisors Not Exempt Under FLSA
Reversing a district court decision, and declining to follow decisions from a number of other courts, including the Fourth and Fifth Circuits, the Ninth Circuit has deferred to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) “flip-flopped” view of whether the FLSA’s exemption for “any salesman, partsman, or mechanic primarily engaged in selling or servicing automobiles,” applies to…
Captain Obvious Issues Most Obvious FLSA Decision of 2015 (So Far…)
It happens every year: I read a decision from a federal judge about the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and shake my head that it actually took litigation to resolve such an obvious question. It is only March, but 2015 already is no different. A recent decision by a federal district judge in New York…
Maryland Appeals Court Casts Doubt On Forum Selections Clauses in Wage Payment Disputes
Recently, the Maryland Court of Appeals took the position, albeit in dicta, that the state’s Wage Payment and Collection Law reflects a “strong” public policy of Maryland and urged Maryland courts to reject as unenforceable any future out-of-state forum selection provisions contained in employment agreements. While just one decision, employers with Maryland-based employees should review…
Federal Court Holds That Immigration Law Does Not Preclude FLSA Liquidated Damages Award
In many ways, federal immigration laws and various labor and employment laws, including the FLSA, may appear fundamentally at odds with each other: prohibiting work by undocumented workers on one hand, but allowing them to recover damages when they are not paid work on the other. We have examined this issue with state laws in…
Supreme Court Rejects Notice and Comment Rulemaking Requirement for Agency Interpretations
In a case we labeled one of the “cases to watch” this term, a relatively unified Supreme Court decided in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association that a federal agency does not need to engage in notice-and-comment rulemaking pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) before it can significantly alter an interpretive rule of an…
Employee’s Failure to Report Off the Clock Work Not a Total Defense Says 11th Circuit
Last summer, we highlighted an example of how good recordkeeping practices can result in a favorable decision. In the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan case, the employer successfully defended an “unauthorized overtime” claim where an employee worked off the clock against Kaiser’s policies and without its knowledge. A recent Eleventh Circuit decision demonstrates the limits of…