In a 6-2 decision issued March 22, the U.S. Supreme Court held that oral complaints are covered by the antiretaliation provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), resolving a split of authority among the federal appeals courts on this issue. See Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp.

Kasten sued his former employer for retaliation under the FLSA, claiming he was terminated because of his oral complaints about the location of the company's time clocks. The time clocks were located in an area between where the employees put on and took off their protective equipment and the area where they carried out their assigned tasks. In a companion case, a federal court held that the placement of these time clocks was a violation of the FLSA because the employer did not compensate employees for time they spent putting on and taking off their protective equipment.

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