In a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective action for unpaid overtime wages by call center representatives against IBM, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on March 9, 2012, adopted the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation and granted IBM’s motion to decertify the conditionally certified class of 39 opt-in plaintiffs. Defendants in FLSA collective actions should take note of this decision and its emphasis on individualized issues and differences among the experiences and understandings of the opt-ins. Click here for the opinion.

The case is Seward v. International Business Machine Corporation, No. 08 CV 3976. The Plaintiff, on behalf of himself and other similarly situated call center representatives at a facility in Atlanta, Georgia, alleged that he was not compensated for the work he was required to perform before his shift started. Specifically, he claimed that IBM required call center representatives to report to work early to boot up their computers off the clock so that they would be “call ready” at the beginning of their shifts.