Category: Wage & Hour

A different set of rules applies to settling wage and hours disputes under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).   Regular contract law does not apply, because the FLSA’s provisions are mandatory and generally are not subject to bargaining, waiver, modification by contract, or even settlement. Stated simply, an employee cannot waive his right to minimum wage or overtime. Therefore, for more than 30 years, since the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in...

It wasn’t that long ago when, in October 2013, Congress failed to pass a budget and the federal government shut down. As evidenced by a recent opinion from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the impact of the shutdown is not quite over. Martin v. United States, No. 13-834C (Fed. Cl. July 31, 2014). A week after the shutdown ended, a group of federal government employees filed suit alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29...

This is an issue near and dear to my heart (having just successfully obtained denials of Rule 23 and FLSA Collective Action certification motions ).  Successful plaintiffs in FLSA actions are entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.  The amount, however, is within the trial court’s discretion.  In deciding the amount, the court must calculate the lodestar, or the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation times a...

As promised in the State of the Union address,  on February 12th, President Obama issued an Executive Order raising the minimum wage to $10.10 for federal contractors and sub-contractors.  The Executive Order can be found here, and the accompanying fact sheet can be found here.  Citing increased morale and productivity, and lower turnover and absenteeism, the Order will apply to all new covered contracts where the solicitation for the contract...

Over the past few years, employers have been besieged by "collective actions" filed under federal and state wage and hour laws. These lawsuits aggregate individual claims for unpaid overtime into class actions, thereby making it much more lucrative for a plaintiff's attorney to invest the time and effort into pursuing the case. In  Jones v. Xerox Commercial Solutions, LLC, No. 4:13-cv-650 (S.D. Tex., November 6, 2013), a federal court in Texas...