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Another Off-the-Clock Case Felled by Time Study

Last week, we discussed the decision of the Northern District of California in Rodriguez v. Nike Retail Services, Inc., Case No. 14-cv-01508-BLF (N.D. Cal. Sept. 12, 2017), in which the employer’s use of a time study resulted...more

Time Study Kills Off-the-Clock Claim

In many cases, particularly in light of last year’s decision in Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, it is the plaintiff who tries to use statistical evidence in an off-the-clock case to estimate damages. But that same data may...more

Illinois Appellate Court Reverses Certification in Off-the-Clock Case

With many of the most common sources of overtime claims being exhausted (e.g., assistant manager cases), plaintiffs are bringing off-the-clock cases in increasing numbers. While employers should certainly pay nonexempt...more

Ohio District Court Dismisses Contract-Based Wage and Hour Class Action

We’re used to seeing off-the-clock cases for minimum wage and overtime, but at times such claims aren’t available, such as when the employees are paid well above the minimum wage and either do not work overtime or are paid...more

Florida Court Denies Conditional Certification of FLSA Case Involving Restaurant Staff

As we’ve noted before, many courts have applied the standard for conditional certification so leniently that in places the requirement of a group of “similarly situated” employees under the FLSA has all but disappeared. So,...more

Court Dismisses Class Action Claims Based on Afghanistan Labor Code

United States lawsuits involving the law of Afghanistan are uncommon, but it is common for employees to bring suit based on work done abroad generally, and not just in that one country. A recent case, however, illustrates...more

Judges Refuse Certification of Off-the-clock Wage and Hour Cases

The Northern District of Illinois has now either decertified or refused to certify two “off the clock” cases involving hourly workers at O’Hare Airport. Neither case involves O’Hare employees per se, but both involve large...more

Time Spent In Post-Shift Security Checks Once Again Held Not Compensable

If you have Amazon Prime, you get free delivery in two business days. If you want to pay extra (whether Amazon Prime or not), you can get your order the next day. So how long does it take for Amazon to get rid of a case the...more

Chipotle Wins One, Loses One, in Wage and Hour Class Litigation

We’ve commented on numerous occasions about the peculiar paths taken by wage and hour class litigation, particularly with respect to collective actions under the FLSA. Two cases involving the same employer decided only days...more

New York District Court Grants Summary Judgment for Employer in Gawker Intern Case

Litigation Over Interns Dries Up Internship Opportunities - The natural and probable consequence of litigation over unpaid internships was that such opportunities would disappear because the risk of litigation for even...more

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case Addressing Scope of Wage and Hour Class and Collective Actions

It’s hard enough to predict what the Supreme Court will do on a given case even after it has been briefed and oral argument has been heard. It’s even harder when all we have is the decision accepting certiorari, but this one...more

Nevada Supreme Court Finds Class of Strippers Were Employees

Given the extensive use of euphemisms in the exotic dancing trade, we’ll apologize in advance for any unintended puns. We’ve written on the issue of the classification of exotic dancers or strippers in the past [April...more

California District Court Rejects Yet Another Class Settlement

In yet another decision rejecting a settlement of an employment class action, the Northern District of California refused to approve a settlement of a wage and hour suit due to numerous problems with the resolution reached...more

California District Court Finds Bankrupt Named Plaintiffs Not Adequate Representatives

Anyone questioning whether the Supreme Court’s decision in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541 (2011), has had an impact need look no further than the decision in Alakozai v. Chase Investment Services Corp., Case...more

Minnesota District Court Rejects Nationwide Scope and Conditionally Certifies Class of One Chipotle Store

Employees win most motions for conditional certification under the FLSA, with many courts declining to perform a probing analysis at that stage. A recent case from the District of Minnesota, in which the court still applied a...more

Third Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Class Allegations for Vague Pleading

Whenever I see the names of the Iqbal and Twombly pleading cases, I can’t help but feel that the names were clipped from lost lines of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky poem, perhaps as something similar to “Iqbal were the Civil...more

New York District Court Conditionally Certifies Class of Interns

In Mark v. Gawker Media LLC, Case No. 13-cv-4347(AJN) (S.D. N.Y. Aug. 15, 2014), Gawker became the subject of yet another in a line of cases involving unpaid interns. Four interns brought suit under the FLSA, contending that...more

Court Rejects Pseudo-Expert Reports and Refuses to Certify Off-the-Clock Case

Off-the-clock cases involving call centers have been in vogue for a number of years despite lingering issues regarding whether they can truly be resolved on a class-wide basis. A recent case from the District of Maryland,...more

Sixth Circuit Refuses to Uphold Collective Action Waiver Absent Arbitration

My working title for this blog was “collective action grab bag,” concerning the recent Sixth Circuit case in Killion v. KeHE Distributors, LLC, Case Nos. 12-3357/4340 (6th Cir. July 31, 2014). I went with the title that...more

Second Circuit Finds Auditors Exempt and Endorses Limits on Class Discovery

While the number of class or collective action lawsuits has exploded, decisions from Circuit Courts of Appeal, particularly on procedural issues, are still infrequent enough to warrant comment. In Pippins v. KPMG, Case No....more

Arizona District Court Rejects Joint Employer Arguments in Independent Contractor Case Alleging Misclassification of Truck Drivers

A month ago we discussed the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Ruiz v. Affinity Logistics Corp., Case No. 12-56589 (9th Cir. June 16, 2014), in which the employer treated its delivery drivers as employees in everything but name,...more

California Supreme Court (!) Issues Strong Pro-Defense Wage and Hour Class Action Decision

“Depending on the nature of the claimed exemption and the facts of a particular case, a misclassification claim has the potential to raise numerous individual questions that may be difficult, or even impossible, to litigate...more

Florida District Court Rejects ERISA Claims Premised on Alleged FLSA Violations

Plaintiffs in most class and collective actions try to plead their claims in such a way as to exert the maximum pressure against the employer. In some instances, that raises the issue of whether the plaintiff should assert...more

Eleventh Circuit Refuses to Enforce Post-Suit Arbitration Agreements Based upon Employer Misconduct

The British have a phrase “too clever by half” to describe complex schemes that ultimately won’t work. We all know from cases such as Concepcion, Stolt-Nielsen, Italian Colors, and their progeny that arbitration...more

Third Circuit Finds That Putative Class Representatives Could Not Challenge Decertification Of An FLSA Collective Action Once They...

While the now familiar two-step process for determining certification of FLSA collective actions may have been introduced based on valid concerns, it is increasingly vexing for employers in cases where they have either done...more

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