There certainly has been no shortage of publicity about the potential for wage and hour claims for time spent by hourly employees using smartphones or other electronic devices for work while off duty. Many employers have...more
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
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
It has become almost part of the plaintiff playbook to bring wage and hour claims despite lawful employer policies by claiming some sort of “class-wide” policy of deviating from those policies. Sadly, this tactic works at...more
It’s unusual to see an employment class action based on breach of contract by nonunionized employees. A recent case from the District of Columbia involving the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), reflects...more
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
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
Unlike, say, mortgage loan officers or computer programmers, the population of professional cheerleaders is relatively small, but an ongoing case involving independent contractor and joint employer issues for one such group...more
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
Yogi Berra often has been quoted for the phrase “It ain’t over till it’s over,” and Lenny Kravitz even made a hit song of it in 1991. While no one will likely ever make a popular song out of Rule 23, the phrase applies just...more
A recent case reflects that some courts will look not only to the presence or absence of conflicts or litigation misconduct but also to the plaintiffs’ counsel’s experience in other class action cases.
In Goers v. L.A....more
Subway is one of the largest franchisors in the world, with over 26,000 restaurants in the United States alone. It is also in one of the industries most prone to wage and hour claims, a fact reflected in both Department of...more
Most California employers know that California treats vacation pay largely as a vested benefit that cannot ordinarily be “forfeited.” In common parlance, the state prohibits “use it or lose it” policies. To prevent employees...more
“As far as overtime, you (like I) can only bill a 40hr work week even though we put in like 60hrs at times.”
This isn’t exactly the email you want to see if you are defending an off-the-clock wage and hour claim, but...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
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
4/6/2016
/ Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
FRCP 23 ,
Gawker ,
Minimum Wage ,
Social Media ,
Summary Judgment ,
Unpaid Interns ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour
Free Choice Tanks Plaintiffs’ Claims - Just last year, the Supreme Court held in Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk, 135 S. Ct. 513 (2014) that employees working at an Amazon.com warehouse were not entitled to...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
Much is being reported in the media about the decision of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California certifying a class of drivers for the Uber ride service who contended that they were...more
9/3/2015
/ AT&T Mobility ,
AT&T Mobility v Concepcion ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Class Certification ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Code ,
Misclassification ,
Sharing Economy ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour
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
We wrote last May about the court’s rejection of a $1.75 million settlement in Cruz v. Sky Chefs, Inc., Case No. C-12-02705 DMR (N.D. Cal. 2014) [May 27, 2014]. The court’s decision related to the settlement of...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
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
Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered, so the saying goes. As we’ve noted before on Oct. 7, June 5, and Dec. 18, courts are starting to examine attorney fee awards in class action settlements much more closely, and the...more
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