Risk Prevention Strategies: Avoiding Costly FLSA Missteps
What Should I Do If My Employer Failed to Pay Me Wages?
It seems every week another call center case pops up. These are extremely dangerous cases for employers and that is why I keep writing (or, harping) about them, as a warning to employers, not only those who operate call...more
In Naranjo v. Spectrum Security Services, the case’s second appearance before the California Supreme Court in two years, the Supreme Court confirmed that an employer does not incur civil penalties for failing to report unpaid...more
Last week, a Washington healthcare company was ordered to pay 33,000 workers $98.3 million in damages in a class action related to its meal break and timeclock rounding practices. The vast majority of the awarded damages...more
In a hotly anticipated decision, the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department held in Grant v. Global Aircraft Dispatch, Inc. that manual workers do not have a private right of action under the New York Labor Law...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A legislative proposal by the Governor, and a new appellate court decision, may have significant ramifications for weekly pay litigation in New York state and federal courts....more
On January 3, 2024, the defendant in Heppard v. Dunham’s Athleisure Corporation filed an interlocutory appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, arguing that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District...more
A recent Ninth Circuit panel held that Hyatt employees who were “laid off” in March 2020 were entitled to payment of their accrued vacation time immediately, even though the employees were not officially terminated until June...more
For decades, the Department of Labor (DOL) has recognized the impracticability of requiring Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) nonexempt employees to clock in exactly at the beginning of their scheduled shifts. In most...more
On April 14, 2023, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Ellis, J.) declined to conditionally certify a collective of USA Today sports website editors, ruling that the familiar two-step Fair...more
When people work, any of us, invariably, there is some measure of so-called “manual work” that we all do. What happens on wage payment, and should anything happen, if the workers doing this type of work are non-exempt people...more
The Ninth Circuit recently addressed an issue that tends to arise frequently in class certification motion practice: how trial courts should apply the predominance requirement where appellate decisions have said that the need...more
On June 15, the U.S. Supreme Court finally brought closure to the long-running, unsettled issue of whether California’s prohibition against arbitration agreement waivers of the right to bring representative actions under the...more
Last week, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, Case No. 20-1573,_ U.S. _ (2022). The case addresses whether the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) requires the...more
While most California employers are familiar with the “regular rate” from calculating non-exempt employees’ overtime payments, changes in the law make clear that employers will now need to perform the same regular rate...more
Last week a California Employer secured a victory when the California Court of Appeal held that the employer’s general California choice-of-law provision in its employment agreement did not entitle the employee to pursue...more
I have handled many travel time cases and can report, regretfully, that plaintiff-side lawyers are always seeking new and creative ways to make certain kinds of travel time compensable. A new case has been filed on this...more
In some instances, it’s hard to see what benefit there is to a class action other than for the lawyers. This is particularly true in so-called “regular rate” cases challenging employer perks such as free meals, various kinds...more
Frlekin v. Apple, Inc., -- Cal. -- (2020) - Summary: The time employees spent on Apple’s premises waiting for and undergoing a mandatory exit search of personal belongings was compensable as “hours worked” under Wage...more
We’ve commented in the past that off-the-clock cases can make poor candidates for class certification, particularly when the employer’s policies require that employees perform work only while clocked in. ...more
A decision by the Oregon Court of Appeals in Maza v. Waterford Operations LLC, 300 Or. App. 471 (2019), raises the bar for Oregon employers on meal breaks, making employers liable for missed meal breaks even if they make...more
The filing of class actions against California employers for meal and rest break violations remain as prevalent as ever, but the California Courts of Appeal have recently issued two rulings that may help employer-defendants....more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently underscored that removal practice under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) differs in some important respects from traditional removal practice in non-CAFA cases. It did so...more
This edition of Employment Flash looks at a series of recent NLRB decisions, many of which apply to all employers, not just those with unionized employees. We also discuss other U.S. federal and state labor and...more
In a surprising decision, the California Supreme Court has ruled that Plaintiffs in Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) cases cannot recover for their own or their fellow employees’ unpaid wages, but instead are limited to...more
In a significant victory for California employers who use arbitration agreements, the California Supreme Court ruled (ZB, N.A. et al. v. Superior Court of San Diego County, S246711 (September 12, 2019)) that the recovery of...more