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
It is no secret that most FLSA class action lawsuits settle. The costs of litigation, the fee shifting nature of the statute, plus the fact that oftentimes the merits/defenses are not that clear (or good) for the employer militate settlements being made. However, that is not the end of the story because the settlement then
When plaintiffs file a FLSA collective action, they always claim that the employer acted willfully, so the plaintiff (and class) can reap the benefit of an extra year, a third year, on the statute of limitations. One of the defenses to such a claim is that the employer acted in good faith on the recommendation
I have often discussed the issue of lawsuits (usually collective actions) for off-the-clock claims and preliminary and postliminary work claimed to be compensable. These are usually mundane activities and usually done for only a few minutes, but when the minutes occur every day, every week and there is a large group of employees engaging in
A group of satellite television dish technicians suing for overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) have been denied class certification based on the court’s finding that there was not sufficient commonality among the class members, or, put differently, there was too much of a need for individual scrutiny. The case is entitled Shim
When piece-rate workers work more than forty hours, the Fair Labor Standards Act has developed a formula for determining and computing their overtime pay. It is first essential, however, to realize that such workers are due overtime and to understand that workers who work “with their hands” such as mechanics or technicians, are entitled to
