Connecticut Employment Law Blog Insight on Labor & Employment Developments for Connecticut Businesses

Category Archives: Class Actions

Subscribe to Class Actions RSS Feed

Offers of Judgment in FLSA Collective Actions: Another Tool for Wage & Hour Claims

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

Last week, while most of us were focused on the events in Boston, the U.S. Supreme Court came down with a notable decision last week involving a wage & hour class action (it’s actually called a “collective” action, but for the non-lawyers out there, just think of it as a class action) and what should… Continue Reading

The Beginning of the End for Wage & Hour Class Actions Through Arbitration Agreements? Second Circuit Sets Stage

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Discrimination & Harassment, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

Suppose you have your employees’ sign agreements to arbitrate all of  their employment disputes.  (I’ve talked about arbitration agreements in many posts before.) Can you have an arbitration agreement that says that an employee is precluded from bringing a Title VII (race or gender discrimination) class action claim in Court? Employees have argued that because most arbitration agreements… Continue Reading

More Litigation, More “Doing” Assistant Store Manager Overtime Cases

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

At 47 pages, U.S. District Court Judge Hall’s decision last week in Costello v. Home Depot USA (download here) denying an employer’s motion for summary judgment in an overtime case, isn’t exactly a light read.  She is, of course, not to blame. The case is complicated and has a “somewhat convoluted procedural history” because it was first filed… Continue Reading

Should You Care That Supreme Court Will Rule on Offers Of Judgment in Wage Cases?

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Litigation, Wage & Hour

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Not all employment law cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court matter are of equal significance and importance to employers. What? How can that be, you say? It’s the SUPREME COURT!  Isn’t everything that they say important? Well, sort of. The truth is that sometimes… Continue Reading

Quick Hits: Holiday Parties, HIPAA and ADA, Non-Compete Agreements, “Supervisor”, Facebook

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in CHRO & EEOC, Class Actions, Discrimination & Harassment, Litigation, Social Media

It’s been a crazy week here for reasons I hope to share in a future post. But in the meantime, the world of employment law still continues. Here are some items worth reading that I had hoped to talk about further. This brief recap will have to do for now. Want some tips on how to… Continue Reading

What Remedy Is Appropriate When a Jury Concludes Sexual Harassment Occurred?

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in CHRO & EEOC, Class Actions, Discrimination & Harassment, Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Litigation

A case out of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (of which, Connecticut is part of) addresses an interesting question: When a jury  finds that sexual harassment has been perpetuated by a single employee, is injunctive (non-monetary) relief required to be issued by the District Court? The EEOC argued yes and argued that remedies such as… Continue Reading

Court Bars Use of Fluctuating Work Week to Calculate Award in Overtime Case

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Litigation, Wage & Hour

In prior posts, I’ve talked about the fluctuating work week and how it can be a useful tool for employers in limited circumstances.  Yesterday, a federal court in Connecticut had a very interesting ruling that addressed whether an employer — when faced with a suit for overtime by a group of convenience store employees (“clerks”,… Continue Reading

The One In Which I Try to Explain the Joint Employer Test

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

“How You Doin’? said the character Joey from the TV show “Friends“.  I say that here because this post is about the “joint employer” test for the Fair Labor Standards Act and its an otherwise dry post. “I know!” (You might be saying, if you were Monica from that same show.) “Could that BE any more boring?” (To… Continue Reading

Quick Hits: NY Deductions, ADA Accommodations, Offers of Judgment, FMLA Report, Facebook & Hiring

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Laws and Regulations, Social Media, Wage & Hour

As the dog days of summer drag on, the news from the employment law arena slows to a trickle.  But here are a few recent stories that may be of interest to employers in Connecticut. New York recently expanded the types of things that employers can deduct from wages. For Connecticut employers with cross-border employees,… Continue Reading

Second Circuit Affirms a Broader Definition of “Executive” FLSA Exemption

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Litigation, Manager & HR Pro’s Resource Center, Wage & Hour

There are three major “white-collar” exemptions to the federal overtime rules that are, to some employers, a bit confusing to say the least.  One of them — the “executive” exemption — is mistakenly understood to just include, well, senior executives of a company. A new case out by the Second Circuit (Ramos v. Baldor Specialty… Continue Reading

BREAKING: Pharmaceutical Representatives are “Outside Salesmen” Under FLSA; Exempt from Overtime

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

The U.S. Supreme Court this morning ruled, 5-4, that pharmaceutical representatives are “outside salesmen” under the Fair Labor Standards Act.  In plain English, this now means that those representatives are now considered exempt from overtime. This decision is a big victory for pharmaceutical companies who have been facing years of class action suits (some of… Continue Reading

Guest Post: NLRB Acting General Counsel Addresses At-Will Disclaimers and More at CBA Annual Meeting

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Labor Law & NRLB, Social Media

On Monday, the Connecticut Bar Association held its annual meeting. Lots of labor and employment law topics were covered, some of which I missed. I’ve asked one of my bar colleagues, Rita Trivedi — who will be a Teaching Program Fellow at Columbia Law School in the fall — to share her insights on the… Continue Reading

Keep an Eye Out for Court’s Ruling on Pharmaceutical Sales Rep. Case

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Litigation, Wage & Hour

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday heard arguments over whether pharmaceutical sales reprsentatives were properly classified as exempt (from overtime) because they fall within the “outside sales” exemption of the nation’s wage & hour laws. The plaintiffs said that they were not properly classified because, while the representatives do a lot of tasks, the one thing that… Continue Reading

Written Consent Form Needed For FLSA Collective Action

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Litigation, Wage & Hour

Ever wonder what happened to the case of the “exotic dancers” who claimed that they were misclassified as independent contractors? Well, the case continues and yesterday, the federal court denied a summary judgment filed the strip club on a technical issue that is probably overlooked by employers in many instances.  You can download the decision… Continue Reading

Offer of Judgment by Employer Renders Employment Claim “Moot”

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Litigation, Wage & Hour

Suppose you’re an employer who has been served with a wage & hour claim.  Rather than fight the claim, you decide to give in. You file an Offer of Judgment (under Rule 68 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, if you’re keeping track at home) and offer to provide the employee with more than the… Continue Reading

Bankruptcy Highlights Necessity of Preventing Data Breaches

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Highlight, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Litigation

With all the focus lately on social media, it’s easy for forget that there are other laws and issues that remain vitally important to employers. One of them is the need for employees to understand the importance of compliance with data privacy laws.  I talked in 2008 about a new law in Connecticut that may… Continue Reading

Class Action Waiver For Employment? Not So Fast, Says the NLRB

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Labor Law & NRLB

Last year, I talked a lot about a U.S. Supreme Court case that seemed to open the door for employers to use mandatory arbitration agreements that precluded employees from using class actions to sue their employers.  But I noted at the time that this was a quickly shifting landscape. A few days ago, the NLRB… Continue Reading

Quick Hits: FLSA & Arbitration Agreements, Initial Discovery Protocols, Dating Policies, EEOC Charges, Ledbetter

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in CHRO & EEOC, Class Actions, Discrimination & Harassment, Litigation, Wage & Hour

There are lots of items I had hoped to write about but, as many of you have observed, there’s only so much time in the week.  So, it’s time to bring back the recurring “Quick Hits” feature to highlight some tidbits worthy of your consideration: Are arbitration agreements that waive FLSA collective actions enforceable? No,… Continue Reading

Hybrid Wage-and-Hour Class Actions Blessed by Second Circuit

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Litigation, Wage & Hour

Ok, bear with me for a second. If your employees want to bring a class action against your company claiming that they should’ve been paid overtime, there are typically two ways to do so: Bring a claim under state law, or bring a claim under federal law (Fair Labor Standards Act). There’s a big difference:… Continue Reading

BREAKING: Second Circuit Allows Black Firefighter’s Suit Against New Haven To Proceed

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Discrimination & Harassment, Litigation

The Second Circuit today reinstated claims brought by a black firefighter against the City of New Haven alleging that he was unfairly denied promotion to the position of lieutenant because of the city’s scoring of a 2003 promotional exam.  (I covered the original lawsuit back in 2009 here.) The decision in Briscoe v. City of… Continue Reading

The End of the Mega-Class Action Era?

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Litigation, Wage & Hour

In this week’s Connecticut Law Tribune Labor & Employment Law Supplement, I penned a piece about the impact of the new U.S. Supreme Court cases from this past term. My conclusions? It is premature to announce the death of wage and hour class actions. But the cases suggest a different future for those types of… Continue Reading

Quick Hits: HR & Social Media Podcast, Class Actions, GPS & FMLA, Shadow Cities

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Human Resources (HR) Compliance, Social Media

The Dog Days of Summer are officially here. Which means slow news items in the employment law area. Oh sure, there’s the labor unions rewriting their bylaws to get the concession package passed (the equivalent of a mulligan in the Masters).  But with Connecticut’s legislature done for the year and the courts slowing down, there’s… Continue Reading

Court: Class-wide Arbitration May Be Allowed, Even if Agreement Is Silent

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Human Resources (HR) Compliance

Earlier this month, the Second Circuit (Jock v. Sterling Jewelers, Inc.) affirmed an arbitrator’s decision, concluding that the arbitrator’s analysis should be upheld even if the District Court disagreed with the legal analysis. Such a decision is entitled to “substantial deference”. The case rests on the principle that arbitrations are not going to be going… Continue Reading

Issues for Misclassification Lawsuits – Don’t Get Swept Up

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions, Litigation, Wage & Hour

The Connecticut Law Tribune this morning has word of a lawsuit by a group of individuals who say that as vacuum sellers, they were “hosed” by a company that, they claim, was actually their employer.  Because the case has just been filed, the employer has not yet filed a response. You can download a copy… Continue Reading