employment class & collective actions

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In September, we told you about the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Frye v. Baptist Memorial Hospital, Inc., where the court handed down, not one, but two favorable rulings for employers in an FLSA collective action. First, the court held that automatic pay deduction policies for unpaid meal breaks do not per se violate the…

In Frye v. Baptist Memorial Hospital, Inc., the United States District Court for the Sixth Circuit handed down not one, but two favorable rulings for employers in an FLSA collective action.
Continue Reading The Sixth Circuit Gives Employers a “Twofer”: An Employer’s Automatic Pay Deduction Policy Does Not Automatically Violate the FLSA and a Class Plaintiff Must “Commence” Suit

In a highly anticipated decision under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the United States Supreme Court handed down a big win on Tuesday for the pharmaceutical industry when the Court found pharmaceutical sales representatives are covered by the outside sales exemption in Christopher v. Smith Kline Beecham Corp. We covered in previous posts the…

On July 6, 2011, the EEOC announced a settlement with Verizon of a nationwide class action lawsuit alleging that Verizon violated the ADA by refusing to make exceptions to its “no fault” attendance plans to accommodate employees with disabilities. According to the EEOC’s press release, Verizon violated the ADA by failing to provide reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities, such as making an exception to its attendance plans for individuals whose “chargeable absences” were caused by their disabilities. Instead, the EEOC said, the company disciplined or terminated employees who needed such accommodations. In addition to requiring the payment of $20 million in monetary relief to affected employees, the Consent Decree filed with the federal district court in Maryland requires the company to revise its attendance plans, policies and ADA policy to include reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, including excusing certain absences.Continue Reading Verizon Consent Decree Provides Road Map For Surviving EEOC Scrutiny of No Fault Attendance and Leave of Absence Policies

The much-awaited decision of the United States Supreme Court is here. Dubbed by Justice Scalia as “one of the most expansive class actions ever,” the Supreme Court unanimously reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which had affirmed the certification of a class of approximately 1.5 million current and former female employees alleging discrimination in pay and promotion.
Continue Reading Wal-Mart v. Dukes: Supreme Court Rejects “Expansive” Gender Bias Class Action In Absence of “General Policy of Discrimination”

On April 27, 2011, the United States Supreme Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) preempted California state contract law which courts had applied to invalidate arbitration agreements that did not permit class arbitration. Although the decision involved a consumer contract, the Supreme Court’s reasoning provides a basis for employers to seek enforcement of employment agreements that prohibit workplace class actions and require the individual arbitration of employment-related claims.Continue Reading Supreme Court’s AT&T Mobility Decision Provides Support For Use Of Employment Arbitration Agreements With Class Action Waivers

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument on Wal-Mart’s appeal of the Ninth Circuit’s en banc decision upholding the certification of a class action gender discrimination lawsuit in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. As noted by a number of commentators (among them The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Christian Science Monitor, and CNN), the tone of the Court’s questioning indicates that the Court is likely to rule in Wal-Mart’s favor.

This appeal stemmed from a federal court’s certification of a nationwide class of female employees of Wal-Mart who were allegedly subjected to discriminatory pay and promotion policies. The class seeks injunctive relief and money damages (back pay) for all women employed since December 1998 in positions ranging from entry-level hourly employees to salaried managers. The class certified in 2004 included 1.5 million women; it currently is estimated to include 3 million women. The district court and Ninth Circuit certified the class after concluding that statistics and sociological expert testimony could allow Plaintiffs to show that Wal-Mart’s culture, when combined with its decentralized decision-making structure, resulted in discrimination against Wal-Mart’s female employees. Those courts approved class certification despite (1) Wal-Mart’s written policy of anti-discrimination, (2) evidence that there was no gender-based pay disparity at 90% of Wal-Mart’s stores, (3) an admission by plaintiff’s expert that he could not say whether discrimination was happening .05% or 95% of the time, and (4) a class that included at least 544 female store managers who would have been both victim and discriminator, under the plaintiffs’ theory.Continue Reading A Skeptical U.S. Supreme Court Vigorously Questions Certification of a Mammoth Sex-Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would hear Wal-Mart’s appeal of the Ninth Circuit’s en banc decision upholding the certification of a class action gender discrimination lawsuit in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. 

As previously noted here and here,  the plaintiffs in Dukes sought to obtain certification of a nationwide class of…

Recent reports have indicated that the number of FLSA collective actions rose sharply in 2009. Many believe this trend will continue in 2010 as employees gain increased awareness of their rights under wage and hour laws and the plaintiffs’ bar recognizes the potential value of FLSA collective actions.

Indeed, there has been a recent flurry of activity across the country in the area of wage and hour class actions. Assistant managers at Foot Locker Retail Inc. filed a nationwide collective action in the Southern District of California, alleging that the company misclassified them as exempt and failed to pay them overtime wages. Similarly, Vermont state employees have brought a putative class action under the FLSA, claiming that the state has failed to pay overtime to employees in higher pay grades. Continue Reading Explosion of FLSA Litigation Should Prompt Employers to Review Their Practices