I have settled numerous FLSA cases and note that there are many elements that management-side lawyers always want to see in such a document. One is a confidentiality provision as we do not want the employee “shooting his mouth off” over what he received in settlement. We also want as broad a Release as possible
Disturbing Ninth Circuit Holding On Inclusion Of Per Diem Expense Reimbursement In FLSA Regular Rate
As a general rule, employee expense reimbursements are not includible in the regular rate for purposes of overtime computation. When the reimbursements, however, are unreasonable or out of whack (i.e. too high) as regards the particular expense, then the USDOL takes the position that the reimbursements are really a backdoor way of paying the employee
Fifth Circuit Issues New Test For Determining Conditional Certification in FLSA Collective Actions: I Am Giddy!
I have often lamented how easy it seems for plaintiffs to secure conditional certification in a FLSA collective action. A few Affidavits, often identical in content, are produced and then, voila, the plaintiff gets conditional certification which then inordinately complicates matters for the employer and makes litigating the case and, of equal import, settling
Named Plaintiff in OT Class Action Dooms The Case By Her “Re-Inventing” Her Deposition Testimony: A Cautionary Tale!
In class actions there is always a named plaintiff (or two or three, etc). That person acts as the class representative and is the “flagship” for the entire case. When that individual does something to jeopardize their status as such a “representative,” the entire case might go away. That is precisely what happened in a
Bah, Humbug! Hospital Hit With Another Of The FLSA Collective Actions On Missed Lunches
The health care industry seems to be ground zero for a particular kind of class action lawsuit. Many of these health care institutions have policies where a thirty-minute lunch period is automatically deducted from the daily scroll of hours. This is quite understandable, from an operational perspective, as it usually is difficult for employees to
FLSA Joint Employer Doctrine At Issue In Health Care Industry Overtime Class Action: A Warning To That Industry!
In FLSA cases, plaintiff lawyers are always looking for a deep pocket and one of the avenues they use towards this “goal” is the joint employer doctrine. That doctrine allows more than one employer to be liable for employee damages (e.g. overtime, back wages) if the employers are found to co-determine employee terms and conditions
USDOL Seeks To Kick Out Private Lawsuit Asserting It Can Do Better For Employees: Can It?
Are two lawsuits better than one? Not for the employer, I can tell you that. A very interesting case is working its way through the federal courts now, where the US Department of Labor wants to take over a private lawsuit that has been filed alleging Fair Labor Standards Act violations. The government is contending
Flushed Down the Toilet: Porta Potty Company Settles FLSA Overtime Collective Action
Employers often do not like to pay overtime, although they must, and they sometimes come up with creative arrangements not to do so. That is fine, until an employee, often one who has been fired, files a lawsuit. Then, the company must resolve the lawsuit and fix the “problem” going forward. A recent example of
Another Assistant Manager FLSA Class Action Goes Down—When Will They Ever Learn?
I love Assistant Manager class actions because it gives a defense lawyer a “golden” opportunity to defeat class certification by asserting that too much individual scrutiny is required to allow a class action to proceed. A beautiful example of this is a recent Walmart case where a group of Assistant Managers dropped their misclassification lawsuits,
Nationwide FLSA Class Action Fails Because Out-of-State Plaintiffs Are Not Sufficiently Connected to State Where Lawsuit Filed: A New Defendant Strategy Pays Off!
Many times, plaintiff lawyers will try to file FLSA class actions as nationwide lawsuits so the size of the class and potential recovery can be magnified geometrically. Well, that just got a little harder to do as a federal judge rejected an attempt by a group of Outback Steakhouse front-of-house managers to continue as a