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By: Kevin Young and Noah Finkel

Seyfarth Synopsis. Businesses familiar with FLSA litigation are aware of the frustrating ease with which some courts have turned single-plaintiff cases into large-scale collective action proceedings. But the tides are shifting, as the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has joined the Fifth Circuit in rejecting the “lenient standard” for collective action certification and demanding…

Continue Reading A “Strong Likelihood” of Change: Sixth Circuit Joins the Fifth in Raising the FLSA Certification Bar

By: Christine M. Costantino

Seyfarth Synopsis: In what could become a trend, Judge T.S. Ellis, III recently broke with other courts in the Eastern District of Virginia when he rejected the two-step conditional certification process commonly used in FLSA collective actions and endorsed the one-step process and rationale outlined in 2021 by the Fifth Circuit in Swales v. KLLM…

Continue Reading Eastern District of Virginia Judge Rejects Two-Step Conditional Certification Process for FLSA Collective Actions

By Ryan McCoy, Alex Simon, and Cary Burke

Seyfarth Synopsis: Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that a crane mechanic who performed some work on a truck chassis came within the purview of the Motor Carrier Act exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act, irrespective of the percentage of time he spent performing…

Continue Reading An Uplifting Motor Carrier Act Exemption Victory At The Fifth Circuit

By: Andrew McKinley, Kyle Winnick & Alex Simon

Seyfarth Synopsis: This first part of a multi-part series explores the implications of the Department of Labor’s proposed independent contractor rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Specifically, it focuses on proposed changes to the control factor concerning legal, safety, contractual, and other similar requirements.

As we detailed here, on…

Continue Reading DOL’s Proposed FLSA Independent Contractor Rule: Control—Part I

By: Annette Idalski, Kyle Winnick, A. Scott Hecker, and Ethan Goemann

Seyfarth Synopsis: The Supreme Court held that highly-compensated employees paid solely on a day rate must meet the so-called “reasonable relationship test” to satisfy the salary basis requirement.

In Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt, the Supreme Court considered whether a day-rate employee earning…

Continue Reading Supreme Court Holds That Highly-Compensated Employees Solely Paid a Day Rate Must Meet Reasonable Relationship Test

By: Noah Finkel and Kyle Petersen

Seyfarth Synopsis:  The DOL has issued guidance to its staff – that might be relied upon by courts – that any break less than 20 minutes while working from home is compensable time, regardless of the reason for the break.

Especially because this post is being released on a Friday, chances are that you…

Continue Reading Not Remotely Helpful: DOL Issues Guidance on Compensability of Teleworking Breaks

As the FLSA landscape continues to evolve, Seyfarth’s national Wage and Hour Litigation practice group is pleased to share our observations and analysis of the 2022 FLSA litigation trends as well as our forward-looking predictions for 2023. Given FLSA litigation trends over the past decade or so, we anticipate that the volume, locations, and substance of filings in 2023 will…

Continue Reading Now Available! 2022 FLSA Litigation Metrics & Trends

By: A. Scott Hecker and Noah A. Finkel

Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 4, 2023, the Biden Administration announced the release of its Fall 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. In connection with the Administration’s new regulatory agenda, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has a number of ambitious rulemakings on the horizon, including a…

Continue Reading The Biden Administration Issued Its Latest Regulatory Agenda – What’s on Tap for DOL in 2023?

By Ethan Goemann and Noah Finkel

Employers have had to quickly pivot in numerous ways to keep their workplaces operating since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.  One such way the workplace changed is through the introduction of COVID-19 screening tests for employees before they enter their employer’s place of business.  Among other questions this spawned is whether such time…

Continue Reading Courts Begin Ruling on Compensability of Covid-19 Screening Time

By: Noah Finkel, Camille Olson, Scott Mallery, Andrew McKinley and Kevin Young

Seyfarth Synopsis:  Today the U.S. Department of Labor issued its draft new interpretive regulation (or NPRM) attempting to define employee versus independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act.  The NPRM jettisons an earlier attempt under the prior Administration to modernize and simplify how…

Continue Reading Meet the New Interpretation, (Pretty Much the) Same as the Old Interpretation: the DOL Proposes Its Own Independent Contractor Definition for the FLSA