U.S. Supreme Court

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By: Kelly J. Koelker and Michael E. Steinberg

The rules governing the employment relationship are always changing. Laws creating new employer obligations, technology solutions making work more efficient and more complicated, and rules governing the resolution of disputes between employers and their workers are around every corner. Wage and Hour Around the Corner is a new blog series for employers…

Continue Reading Wage and Hour Around The Corner: To Defer or Not to Defer: That is the Question Facing Lower Fed Courts and States After SCOTUS Decision in Loper Bright

By David S. Baffa, Noah A. Finkel, and Joseph S. Turner

Seyfarth Synopsis: Congress has once again proposed legislation that would seek to ban mandatory workplace arbitration of employment claims, despite a string of United States Supreme Court decisions upholding arbitration and class/collective action waivers as a lawful and appropriate mechanism to resolve workplace disputes. 

H.R. 7109,…
Continue Reading Halloween Bill Provides a Scare By Seeking to Prohibit Workplace Arbitration Altogether

Authored by Andrew L. Scroggins, Noah A. Finkel, and David S. Baffa

Seyfarth Synopsis:  The NLRB has withdrawn the significant concession it offered at oral argument on the nature of the NLRA rights it seeks to assert in the face of employers’ mandatory arbitration programs.

As noted in our earlier blog post, the Supreme Court heard oral…
Continue Reading NLRB About-Face Highlights Lack of Reasoning on the Class Action “Right” It Seeks to Assert

Authored by Holger G. Besch 

Perhaps signaling the importance of the issue for American businesses and jurisprudence, the U.S. Supreme Court‎ chose the first day of its term beginning in October as the date to set oral arguments in three petitions for certiorari asking whether employees can be required to waive their rights via arbitration agreements to file class and…
Continue Reading SCOTUS Puts the Class Action Waiver Issue at the Top of Its Agenda

Co-authored by Noah Finkel and Andrew Scroggins

Employers have faced questions about the enforceability of arbitration agreements with class and collective action waivers since the NLRB’s highly controversial D.R. Horton decision in 2012, which held that the waivers violate employees’ right to engage in protected concerted activity. The Fifth Circuit refused to enforce the decision, and other courts followed…
Continue Reading Mandatory Arbitration, Class Waivers, and the Future of Wage-Hour Litigation: 6th Circuit Shows One Reason Why High Court Rejection of D.R. Horton Theory Would Not Kill Collective Actions

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

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?

ghost-582113_1920Authored by Jeff Glaser

Seyfarth Synopsis: The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals cites to the FLSA’s purpose and spirit in upholding the dismissal of a minimum wage and overtime claim brought by a highly paid computer software and hardware engineer.

As we’ve discussed on this blog before, the Supreme Court’s decision in Christopher v SmithKline Beecham Corp.
Continue Reading The Spirit of the FLSA Haunts a Highly Paid Employee

Co-authored by Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Christina M. Janice, Michael W. Stevens, and Kylie R. Byron

Make no mistake, the role of Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court profoundly impacts the balance of power among the branches of our government.  Now, with the untimely passing of Justice Antonin Scalia on February 13, the void created in the…
Continue Reading What Employers Need To Know About Supreme Court Issues After The Passing Of Justice Scalia

Co-authored by Kara Goodwin and Noah Finkel

The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to resolve the question of whether “service advisors” at car dealerships—workers whose primary job responsibilities involve identifying service needs and selling service solutions to the dealership’s customers—are exempt from the Fair Labor Standard Act’s (“FLSA”) overtime pay requirements. Although the case involves a somewhat-discrete exemption that has…
Continue Reading Meowing Dogs and Barking Cats: Supreme Court’s Grant of Cert on Exempt Status of Automobile Service Advisors May Result in Reminder that Exemptions Are Functional and Flexible