The United States Supreme Court unanimously held that when a district court compels claims to arbitration, the district court must stay – rather than dismiss – the district court case. In Smith v. Spizzirri, the Supreme...more
We have written a lot about the pluses and minuses of requiring arbitration of employment disputes. The arithmetic is complicated and employers come to different sums....more
In comparing arbitration to litigation, it would be misleading to compare the time, cost and risk of resolving a case at an arbitration hearing to the time, cost and risk of resolving a case at trial. After all, in most...more
In recent years, a new factor has entered the equation for employers considering employee arbitration programs: mass arbitration....more
We continue our series examining whether an employment arbitration program can help minimize legal risks from COVID-19 and beyond by considering another question employers should ask when deciding whether to adopt an...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: This series (Is Arbitration the Answer? and Can Arbitration Agreements Protect Employers Against Class Actions?) examines whether an employee arbitration program can help minimize legal risks from COVID-19...more
This series (Is Arbitration the Answer? and Can Arbitration Agreements Protect Employers Against Class Actions?) examines whether an employee arbitration program can help minimize legal risks from COVID-19 and beyond....more
In recent years, the retail sector’s use of non-employee gig workers has grown dramatically. Both retailers and brand-name distributors have increasingly used workers who accept work on a project-by-project basis to load and...more
This series examines whether an employee arbitration program can help minimize legal risks from COVID-19 and beyond.
For many employers, an important reason for rolling out arbitration is a desire to avoid class and...more
Most employers have seen the forecasts. The waves of employees let go in the COVID crisis will file a surge of employment claims. Worse, plaintiffs’ lawyers will scrutinize the many changes required by the pandemic and...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: An appellate court has ruled that a district court should not authorize notice of an FLSA suit to employees who are ineligible to join the suit because they agreed to resolve disputes exclusively through...more
1/31/2020
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Collective Actions ,
Eligibility Determination ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Facebook ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
JPMorgan Chase ,
Misclassification ,
Opt-In ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Seyfarth Synopsis: A Massachusetts trial court judge ruled that employees were entitled to premium pay for work on Sundays at a call center, under a Massachusetts statute governing Sunday and holiday work at a retail “store...more
1/27/2020
/ Brick-and-Mortar Stores ,
Call Centers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Holiday Pay ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Risk Management ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Sunday Pay Laws ,
Wage Act ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wages
Among the most common types of wage and hour lawsuits in Massachusetts are independent contractor misclassification suits. These actions arise when an individual who provides a service claims that: (1) he or she was...more
Even fair-minded employers, with sound policies, face “off-the-clock” claims. That is, employers have to defend against lawsuits in which employees argue that they worked hours for which their employers failed to pay them. ...more
Effective July 1, 2018, the Massachusetts Equal Pay Act (the “Act”) requires employers to pay employees of different genders equal wages for comparable work unless the difference in pay is explained by the Act’s enumerated...more
Tip #1: Consider An Arbitration Agreement—With A Class Action Waiver -
Until recently, there has been much debate about the enforceability of arbitration agreements containing class action waivers. Courts disagreed as to...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Two recent decisions by federal courts in Massachusetts highlight barriers to litigating FLSA cases on a nationwide basis — including a personal jurisdiction defense that could preclude a nationwide...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Although an employee can prove discrimination by showing that an employer’s reasons for adverse action are pretextual, the Eleventh Circuit finds that an employee must do more than merely contest the...more
11/8/2018
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Race Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Summary Judgment ,
Wage and Hour
Seyfarth Synopsis: There have been two big updates on the prior salary front. First, Delaware joins the growing number of states and local jurisdictions with its enactment of a law preventing employers from requesting salary...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: UPDATE: The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed the challenge to the Philadelphia ordinance on May 30, 2017 based upon the Chamber of Commerce for Greater...more
6/9/2017
/ Commerce Clause ,
Due Process ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Pay ,
First Amendment ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Home Rule States ,
Job Applicants ,
Local Ordinance ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Wage and Hour
Seyfarth Synopsis: Businesses banded together to challenge, on First Amendment and Due Process grounds, the pay equity Ordinance which would ban inquiries into prospective employees’ prior salaries. The Ordinance, which was...more
4/26/2017
/ Commerce Clause ,
Disparate Treatment ,
Due Process ,
First Amendment ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Home Rule States ,
Local Ordinance ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Pay Gap ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Wage and Hour
Seyfarth Synopsis: Recently, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed a law amending the Commonwealth’s “blue laws.” The blue laws prohibit business activities on Sundays and holidays, unless the activity fits within a...more
Independent contractor misclassification claims have become an epidemic — nationally and especially in Massachusetts. Under most tests for independent contractor status, whether an individual’s services are within the usual...more
Companies burdened by an avalanche of wage and hour class and collective actions have been hoping that Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo might be the game-changing decision they have been waiting for. If the oral argument...more
The National Labor Relations Board’s decision in Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc., announced last week, dramatically expands joint employer liability under the National Labor Relations Act. A business can be...more