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

Tag Archives: class action

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

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

Five Things To Know About Paid Sick Leave, NLRB and Other New Developments

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Highlight, Laws and Regulations, Legislative Developments, Social Media, Wage & Hour

At yesterday’s labor & employment law seminar, we had both Heidi Lane, a Prinicipal Attorney with the Connecticut Department of Labor, and Jonathan Kreisberg, Regional Director of the NLRB’s Hartford Office, speak to attendees about the latest developments under both Connecticut and federal law. But for those who couldn’t make it, here are five notable things they discussed: 1)… 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

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

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

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

Wal-Mart v. Dukes: What The Class-Action Decision Really Means for Employers

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

Over the last 24 hours, there’s been a lot written about the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes.  Frankly, all of them are starting to say the same thing:  The decision is going to hamper all class-action discrimination cases going forward. But that statement tends to simplify the decision a bit too… Continue Reading

BREAKING: Supreme Court Rejects Class Action Against Wal-Mart

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

Back in March, I reported on the likelihood of a victory for Wal-Mart in an important class action case up at the U.S. Supreme Court. This morning, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the class action against the nation’s largest employer, saying, in essence, that the women who were bringing the sex discrimination charges would have… Continue Reading

The Quickly Shifting Landscape of Class Actions and Arbtirations

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

Now that the dust has settled a bit, it’s time to look at the long-term impact of last month’s Supreme Court decision in AT&T v. Concepcion for employment matters.  (For a great analysis of the decision itself, see this SCOTUSblog post.)  All the analysis that has been coming out seems to suggest that there are two main… Continue Reading

Are Some Employment Law Class Actions in Jeopardy? New Supreme Court Case Suggests Path

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

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision,  yesterday held that the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state laws that discuss or limit arbitration agreements on the availability of class action arbitration procedures.  The case, AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion (download here) isn’t an employment law case (it concerns whether AT&T should have charged consumers sales tax on… Continue Reading

The Strong Pull of a “Day in Court”; Lessons Learned from Wal-Mart v. Dukes

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Class Actions

Nearly everyone has chimed in over the oral argument in Wal-mart v. Dukes over the last 36 hours up at the Supreme Court.  And nearly everyone seems to be predicting an outright victory to Wal-mart.  Because we don’t even have a decision yet, I’ll leave it to others to prognosticate (read: guess) what will really… Continue Reading

Quick Hits: Wage & Hour Litigation; Protected Concerted Activity; Set-Off in Mass.; Prevailing Wage; I-9s

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Wage & Hour

With all the snow piling up, there’s been a lot I’ve been meaning to get to but haven’t. So, it’s time to bring back the "Quick Hits" feature where I recap some of the employment law tidbits you might have missed recently. The Wage & Hour Litigation blog (a new employment law blog, so welcome),… Continue Reading

Breaking: U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Wal-Mart Class Action Case

By Daniel Schwartz on Posted in Litigation

The U.S. Supreme Court this morning agreed to hear Wal-Mart’s appeal of a decision that granted certification to what would be the largest employment discrimination class action case ever heard in the United States.  The SCOTUSBlog has the definitive wrapup here.  The underlying case has raised allegations of sex discrimination by current and female workers… Continue Reading

Court Upholds Arbitration Agreement; Says Employee Can Waive FLSA Collective Actions

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

Employers who have shunned using arbitration agreements for fear that they will be overturned, will want to take a look at a recent federal court decision that upheld an arbitration agreement that had provisions that some would consider very pro-employer. In Pomposi v. GameStop, Inc. (download here),  the employer moved to dismiss a collective action… Continue Reading

Connecticut Supreme Court: Order Denying Class Certification in Minimum Wage Case Is Not Immediately Appealable

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

The Connecticut Supreme Court, in a decision released today, ruled today that an order denying class certification is not an appealable final judgment.  The case, Palmer v. Friendly Ice Cream Corporation, gives employers and other defendants in class actions, an important arrow in their quiver of defending against class action cases.  In Palmer, thirty-seven waiters or waitresses employed by Friendly’s,… Continue Reading

“Wage Wars” – Business Week’s Analysis of Overtime Lawsuits

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

For employment lawyers and HR professionals, it’s "old" news that overtime lawsuits are a major concern.  Business Week picks up on that trend in next week’s Cover Story entitled: "Wage Wars: Does your Boss Owe You Overtime".  According to the article: No one tracks precise figures, but lawyers on both sides estimate that over the… Continue Reading