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.
Co-authored by Kristin McGurn and Kevin Young
Seyfarth Synopsis: At a time when the Massachusetts meal break landscape is increasingly friendly to employees, a federal judge in the state recently denied class certification in a meal break case, Romulus, et al. v. CVS Pharmacy, Inc. At issue were store policies, common in retail, that called for in-store key-holder coverage whenever
Continue Reading Should I Stay or Should I Go Now: Federal Court Denies Class Certification to Supervisors Claiming In-Store Meal Breaks Violate Massachusetts Law
Co-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
Authored 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?
Authored by Eric Lloyd
Seyfarth Synopsis: Minor league baseball players took a swing at class certification, and they missed—badly.
In Senne v. Kansas City Royals Baseball Corp., et al., minor league baseball players across the country asserted wage and hour claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and various state laws against Major League Baseball (“MLB”), the Commissioner
Continue Reading Northern District of California “Shuts Out” Minor League Ballplayers’ Experts
Co-authored by Sherry Skibbe and Andrew Paley
Allstate Insurance Company “insured” a major victory last week in an off the clock class action pending in Los Angeles Superior Court, vindicating employers’ argument that plaintiffs cannot simply intone the magical incantation of “statistical sampling” as a means of collective proof in a class action. Rather, plaintiffs must proffer a detailed and
Continue Reading Court Insures Allstate Against Unsound Trial Plan Mayhem
Co-authored by Rob Whitman, Adam Smiley, and Nadia Bandukda
A federal judge has sided with Gawker in the media company’s legal battle with a former unpaid intern who claimed that he should have been compensated as an employee. On March 29th, Judge Alison Nathan in the Southern District of New York granted Gawker’s motion for summary judgment and
Continue Reading Gawker Victory Against Unpaid Interns Provides Helpful Roadmap
Co-authored by Robert Whitman and Adam Smiley
While most New Yorkers rode out last weekend’s blizzard by binge watching television or enjoying playoff football, three Second Circuit judges apparently spent their time more productively, as the court on Monday issued an amended decision in its landmark ruling from last summer on unpaid internships.
As we have previously reported, the
Continue Reading Second Circuit Leaves Interns in the Cold—Again
Authored by Gena D. Usenheimer
Hourly pharmacists for CVS in California were forced to swallow a bitter pill late last year when Judge S. James Otero of the Central District or California denied their motion for class certification on claims for unpaid off-the-clock and overtime work.
The plaintiffs alleged that they were forced to work additional hours without pay in
Continue Reading Bad Medicine: California Pharmacists Lose Bid For Class Certification
Authored by Michael W. Kopp
Ordonez v. RadioShack, Part II is the end-of-summer sequel you do not want to miss. It features our protagonist, the “uniform rest break policy,” a sinister cast of declarations of similar treatment, a harrowing finding of unlawfulness, a dramatic second run by plaintiff at class certification, and the court’s emphatic second opinion denying plaintiff’s
Continue Reading Uniform Break Policies Are Not Uniformly Suited for Class Treatment