Another exemption lawsuit has been filed. What else is new? This time, a group of nurses and care coordinators determine who analyze requests for coverage from health care providers have claimed they are entitled to overtime because they are non-exempt. They have filed a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The case is
Need For Too Much Individual Scrutiny Defense Fails: A Real Bummer!
The employer who is fighting a collective or class action must make the argument that there is too much of a need for individual scrutiny to allow a class to proceed. There are times that argument works, and times it does not. An Illinois federal Judge has recently conditionally certified a class of logistics workers
Employees Working In Slaughterhouse Settle FLSA Overtime Case: When Will Employers Learn?
It is amazing to me that employers still do not understand that there exists an inviolate obligation on their parts to pay proper overtime. It is not proper for an employer to believe that if it treats its employees “well,” or if its business is “green” and it tries to do the right thing by
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
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
Payroll Audit Independent Determination Program Is a Bust… for an Obvious Reason!
When the USDOL self-reporting program was announced, I was highly skeptical. Even though there seemed to be assurances that no undue enforcement actions would be taken, it just did not seem that employers would voluntarily subject themselves to such government review. Evidently, I was right. The USDOL has announced that this voluntary compliance program, the
Pandemic Instigates First of (Probably) Many Lawsuits on Wage Payment
Well, here we are, still in the midst of this horrible COVID-19 pandemic, staying home, scared to go out, wearing masks and gloves, but yet, the first lawsuit(s) involving virus issues have already been filed. In this instance, right in my home state of New Jersey, a hair stylist has filed a class and collective
Flimsy Affidavit From Named Plaintiff Insufficient to Secure Conditional Certification in FLSA Collective Action: A Case for Sanity!
It seems that plaintiffs (and their lawyers) think that all they have to do to get conditional certification is throw up a flimsy Affidavit from the named plaintiff and the Court will hand them conditional certification, like it is giving out candy. Fortunately, in the District of New Jersey that is not the case, as