By: Molly Gabel and Samuel Rubinstein
Seyfarth Synopsis: Over a year since it was introduced, the New York State Senate and Assembly recently passed the Healthy Terminals Act. The Act, among other things, gives the government the authority to set prevailing wages and overtime rates for covered airport workers. At this time, it is unclear…
By: Matthew Gagnon, Steve Shardonofsky, Jim Swartz, and Coby Turner
The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned a wave of employment litigation directly and indirectly based on COVID-19-related health risks and employers’ response to the crisis. Seyfarth has been tracking lawsuits filed in state and federal courts across the country, and will be reporting …
By: Louisa Johnson and Kerry Friedrichs
Seyfarth Synopsis: In its first published ruling on such issues, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit disagreed with some earlier court rulings and, in keeping with the U.S. Department of Labor’s new interpretive rule (taking effect on August 7, 2020), held that the fluctuating workweek…
By: Sara E. Fowler and Kevin M. Young
Seyfarth Synopsis: Chicago’s Fair Workweek Ordinance goes into effect on July 1. The law will require covered employers to provide covered employees ten days’ notice of their work schedule. Save for certain exceptions, schedule changes after that time will require payment of “Predictability Pay” to the impacted…
By: John G. Yslas and Phillip J. Ebsworth
Seyfarth Synopsis: In acquiring a company in bankruptcy, there is often a tendency to think this guarantees the purchaser will be “free and clear” of any liability (including so-called “successor liability”). This is not necessarily so with wage and hour liability, particularly if the purchaser merely…
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Second Circuit has held that the standard for final FLSA collective action certification is less stringent than the standard for class action certification under Rule 23.
Wage-hour litigators have long been familiar with the proposition that a plaintiff’s burden to obtain initial collective action certification under the…
Seyfarth Synopsis: Furthering a recent trend, a judge in the District of Massachusetts denied a motion for conditional certification because there was no personal jurisdiction over non-Massachusetts entities with respect to the claims of employees who worked outside the state.
As we have discussed previously, several courts have held that plaintiffs in nationwide FLSA…
By: Howard M. Wexler and Lisa L. Savadjian
Seyfarth Synopsis: On August 6, 2019, Acting New Jersey Governor Sheila Oliver signed into law A-2903/S-1790, described as an Act “concerning enforcement, penalties, and procedures for law regarding failure to pay wages.” The Act makes a number of critical changes to several New Jersey civil and…
By: Jeff Glaser and Katy Smallwood
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Motor Carrier Act exemption to the FLSA (“MCE”) is a powerful defense against overtime claims brought by interstate truck drivers and others involved in the interstate shipment of goods. Importantly, the exemption is not limited to drivers who cross state lines. Instead, numerous courts have made…
John Ayers-Mann and Kerry Friedrichs
Seyfarth Synopsis: In a recent decision, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rebuked a Pennsylvania district court’s skeletal analysis of plaintiffs’ class action claims. Particularly, the court took issue with the district court’s failure to define the classes with sufficient specificity and failure to undertake a rigorous analysis of…
