By: Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Alex S. Oxyer

Seyfarth Synopsis: Incentive awards for class representatives are impermissible, according to a ground-breaking decision last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.  Though not an employment case, the decision is a must-read for class action practitioners handling all varieties of workplace class and collective action litigation, such …
Continue Reading The Eleventh Circuit Deals A Significant Blow To Class Action Suits By Eliminating Incentive Awards For Plaintiffs

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 whether Governor Cuomo will sign …
Continue Reading New York State Passes Healthy Terminals Act

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 on the emerging trends within …
Continue Reading COVID-19 Employment Litigation Trends

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 employee. The City recently published …
Continue Reading Chicago Publishes Fair Workweek Guidance Ahead of July 1 Effective Date

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 continues to operate virtually the …
Continue Reading Is a Purchase in Bankruptcy Really Free and Clear of Liability During COVID-19?

By: Robert S. Whitman

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 Fair Labor Standards Act is…
Continue Reading Second Circuit Lets Collective Action Proceed Where Class Action Fails

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 collective actions must either sue…
Continue Reading Keeping it Local: Another Court Denies FLSA Conditional Certification Due to Lack of Personal Jurisdiction