While several recent Supreme Court decisions have garnered significant headlines, the Court’s late June ruling in Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski, (Case No. 22-15), likely flew under the radar for the national media outlets. For...more
One relatively common misapprehension by employers is that generous wages or popular methods of payment will satisfy the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). On February 22, 2023, the Supreme Court reiterated the need not simply...more
2/22/2023
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc v Hewitt No 21-984 ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Minimum Salary ,
Multi-Factor Test ,
Over-Time ,
Salaried Employees ,
SCOTUS ,
Wage and Hour
In a much-anticipated opinion, the Supreme Court unanimously held that a party claiming waiver of the right to arbitrate need not show prejudice, in Morgan v. Sundance, Inc., Case No. 21-328 (May 23, 2022). While the holding...more
Some cases look a lot more important at first glance than what they turn out to be. Case in point, today’s decision in Fort Bend County, Texas v. Davis, Case No. 18-525 (U.S. Sup. Ct. June 3, 2019). The Court’s holding was...more
6/5/2019
/ Affirmative Defenses ,
Amended Complaints ,
Appeals ,
Charge-Filing Preconditions ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Forfeiture ,
Fort Bend County Texas v Davis ,
Jurisdictional Requirements ,
Mandatory Claim-Processing Rules ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
Title VII ,
Waiver Rule ,
Wrongful Termination
On Jan. 8, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision regarding an important procedural issue under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). In Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer & White Sales, Inc., No. 17-1272, it held...more
1/11/2019
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Arbitrators ,
Contract Terms ,
Exceptions ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Henry Schein Inc v Archer and White Sales Inc ,
Judicial Review ,
Motion to Compel ,
Question of Arbitrability ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Vacated ,
Wholly Groundless Doctrine
Is Yard-Man really dead this time?
This issue should never have arisen, the Supreme Court should not have had to address it in 2015, and it shouldn’t have required Supreme Court attention a second time just three years...more
One of the difficulties of class action litigation that continues to vex employers is the frequent inability to obtain meaningful review of certification decisions. Because, the reasoning goes, certification orders are...more
A slap in the face, maybe, after 11 years -
Back in 2005, a prospective driver for a trucking company filed a charge with the EEOC contending that two trainers sexually harassed her during an over-the-road trip. That...more
Statistics are kind of a holy grail of class action litigation. Everyone seems to know that they exist, but their understanding is shadowy and the quest to find valid statistical models often proves elusive. Last month’s...more
For 33 years, unionized employers in the Sixth Circuit had to deal with the holding and, worse still, the application of the decision in UAW v. Yard-Man, Inc., 716 F.2d 1476 (6th Cir. 1983), which created what it called an...more
It is almost an axiom that the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 201 et seq., passed in 1938, is out of date. Despite modest tweaks since the time it was enacted, a particularly dark time in the Great Depression, it is...more
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
6/11/2015
/ Calculation of Damages ,
Certiorari ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Collective Actions ,
Damages ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
FRCP 23(b)(3) ,
SCOTUS ,
Tyson Foods ,
Tyson Foods v Bouaphakeo ,
Wage and Hour
Title VII was passed with a strong bias toward voluntary, non-litigation methods of dispute resolution. Indeed, the statute requires that even when the EEOC has found probable cause, the Commission “shall endeavor to...more
Congress passed the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) in 2005, in response to perceived (in fact real) concerns regarding potential abuses of the class action process. Among CAFA’s important provisions was the right to remove...more
Security screening has become more common over the past decade, both to promote security for some employers and to deter employee theft for others. A growing issue in wage and hour law, at least until this morning, was...more
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
Three years ago, the Supreme Court found in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541, 2551-52 (2011) that courts “frequently” will need to look to the merits in determining whether certification is appropriate,...more
We’ve written at least twice now on class actions arising out of time spent by employees going through security lines, primarily at the end of their shifts. The question is whether and when such time might be compensable...more
Last week, the Supreme Court decided the case of Sandifer v. United States Steel Corp., Case No. 12-417 (Jan. 27, 2014), addressing donning and doffing claims in the context of a unionized steel mill. That case not only...more
In 1991, Sega introduced the video character Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic became insanely popular, spawning several generations of videogames that are still being designed and sold today, comic books, and even a short-lived...more
Dorothy Gale famously remarked upon finding herself in Oz “Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Class action wage and hour plaintiffs on the west coast are now awakening to the fact that while they may still...more
7/12/2013
/ American Express ,
American Express v Italian Colors Restaurant ,
Arbitration ,
AT&T Mobility v Concepcion ,
Class Action ,
Collective Actions ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Ernst & Young ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
NLRB ,
SCOTUS ,
Wage and Hour
Last week, the United States Supreme Court confirmed what we informed readers of in our Employment Class Action Blog on February 21, 2011, "A timely and properly worded offer of judgment may moot a collective action and...more
Today the United States Supreme Court delivered an unexpected present to employers facing FLSA collective actions and held that a defendant may moot such a case by making a Rule 68 offer of judgment to the named plaintiff....more