conditional certification

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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

Co-authored by Robert S. Whitman and Needhy Shah

Seyfarth Synopsis: A judge in the Southern District of New York held that FLSA off-the-clock claims could not proceed collectively because the employer’s policy enforcement and approval of overtime compensation varied by supervisor.

In Lynch v. City of New York, Judge Katherine Forrest rejected an attempt to prosecute a single collective…
Continue Reading “Similarly Situated” Seriously Scrutinized by Southern District

Authored By Robert Whitman

Seyfarth Synopsis: The Second Circuit will soon decide key issues for FLSA practitioners: whether settlements pursuant to an Offer of Judgment are subject to court review and approval, and whether the standards for final collective certification of FLSA claims are different from those for class certification of state law wage claims under Rule 23.

Two cases…
Continue Reading What Do Sushi and Burritos Have in Common? Second Circuit Ready to Sample Tasty Wage-Hour Procedural Issues

Authored by Cheryl Luce

Employers often grapple with what to do when their policies prohibit off-duty work, like working on mobile devices after hours, that employees don’t follow. Even if it has a policy prohibiting off-duty work, if the employer knows (or should know) an employees is working, the employer must compensate the employee for the off-duty work. The same…
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Sends Police Officers’ Off-Duty BlackBerry Claims to Spam Folder

Supreme-Court-seaslCo-authored by Kara Goodwin and Noah Finkel

Pending before the United States Supreme Court is a petition for writ of certiorari asking the Court to determine whether an employer may use payments for bona fide meal periods as an offset/credit against compensable work time. If the Supreme Court accepts the case, it would also provide an excellent opportunity for the…
Continue Reading No Good Deed Goes Unpunished – The Supreme Court May Decide Whether Payments for Meal Breaks Can Offset Alleged Off-The-Clock Work

Co-authored by Christopher M. Cascino and Jennifer A. Riley

Seyfarth Synopsis: A federal district court last week decertified and effectively grounded a collective action of O’Hare Airport janitorial staff who claimed that their employer forced them to work off-the-clock without compensation. This decision, Solsol v. Scrub, Inc., stands out as a significant victory for employers because, even though all of …
Continue Reading Court Grounds O’Hare Janitors’ Collective Action For Off-the-Clock Work

iStock-513046321Authored by John P. Phillips

Seyfarth Synopsis: Recently the Ninth Circuit doubled down on its decision that service advisers at car dealerships are not exempt from the FLSA, despite being overturned once by the U.S. Supreme Court. This case gives the Supreme Court an excellent opportunity to address the proper construction of FLSA exemptions and allow the plain and common …
Continue Reading The Ninth Circuit Goes All In. Will the Supreme Court Call?

Book that says JusticeCo-authored by Robert S. Whitman and Howard M. Wexler

Seyfarth Synopsis: A New York federal court denied a motion for conditional certification of a nationwide collective action against Barnes & Noble. The ruling highlights that, even though the burden for “first stage” certification is modest, courts may not approve such motions without evidence that the named plaintiffs are similarly …
Continue Reading Don’t Judge a Conditional Certification Motion by Its Cover

Authored by Rob Whitman

Seyfarth Synopsis: Unpaid interns for Hearst magazines have been rebuffed again in their effort to be declared eligible to receive wages under the FLSA and the New York Labor Law.

In an August 24, 2016 ruling, Judge J. Paul Oetken of the Southern District of New York held that six interns, who worked for Marie …
Continue Reading In Final Exam, Court Rejects Hearst Interns’ Pay Claims

Co-authored by Robert Whitman, Cameron Smith, and Meredith-Anne Berger

Former brokers of Fordham Financial Management will have to put this one in the “loss” column. Judge Paul Crotty of the Southern District of New York granted Fordham’s motion to decertify the FLSA collective in their lawsuit alleging they were misclassified as independent contractors.

The brokers initially succeeded in…
Continue Reading Brokers Take a Bath in FLSA Collective Action