Archives: Nonexempt Status

New York District Court Denies Certification and Conditional Certification of Class of Personal Bankers

One can only imagine the outcome the plaintiffs’ attorneys were anticipating: a case against the financial industry, involving non-exempt employees subject to an auto-deduct policy for meal periods, in the Southern District of New York. It seems like a laundry list of many types of claims that have been certified, and they no doubt expected … Continue Reading

Court Decertifies Overtime Class of Retail Store Managers

By Greg Mersol on October 1, 2012 Posted in Nonexempt Status, Overtime Claims, Retail, Wage and Hour

Nothing succeeds like success. Four years ago, in Morgan v. Family Dollar Stores, Inc., 551 F.3d 1233 (11th Cir. 2008), the Eleventh Circuit upheld a $35+ million jury award against the Family Dollar store discount chain for allegedly misclassifying its store managers as exempt. Predictably, retailers, already a target (no pun intended) of such litigation, … Continue Reading

Ninth Circuit Solidifies Split of Authority on Drug Sales Representative Overtime Exemption

By Scott McIntyre on February 25, 2011 Posted in Nonexempt Status, Overtime Claims

In a decision that emphasizes practicality over formalism, the Ninth Circuit recently held that pharmaceutical sales representatives (“PSRs”) are exempt from overtime pay. In Christopher v. SmithKline Beecham Corp.pdf, __F.3d___, 2011 WL 489708 (9thCir. Feb. 14, 2011) the Court concluded that the “outside sales” exemption to the FLSA applies to PSRs, meaning that they are … Continue Reading

Court Grants Summary Judgment in Multidistrict Independent Contractor Cases

By Greg Mersol on January 5, 2011 Posted in ERISA, FLSA, Independent Contractors, Nonexempt Status, Wage and Hour

We’ve written at least three times now on the case of Dukes v. Wal-Mart, now pending before the United States Supreme Court, as it is the largest employment class action in history. Perhaps a relatively distant second is the collection of cases against FedEx Ground Package System, currently being handled through the multidistrict litigation docket in Northern Indiana. … Continue Reading

California Court Dismisses Employment Antitrust Class Action

By Greg Mersol on December 7, 2010 Posted in Nonexempt Status, Overtime Claims

Cases involving employment and antitrust are rare. Typically, such cases involve claims that a group of employers agreed expressly or impliedly to cap or limit wages among their employees. For example, they may claim that the employers in a particular industry agreed not to pay more than a set wage for employees in certain positions. … Continue Reading

Second Circuit Affirms Denial of Class Certification for Hertz Station Managers and Provides Guidance on FLSA Certification Standard

By Gilbert Brosky on November 8, 2010 Posted in Class Certification, Conditional Certification, FLSA, Nonexempt Status, Overtime Claims, Rule 23, Wage and Hour

On October 27, 2010, the Second Circuit affirmed a federal court’s refusal to certify a proposed class of Hertz Station Managers allegedly denied overtime under New York law. (Myers v. Hertz Corp., No. 08-1037 (2d Cir. Oct. 27, 2010)). In doing so, the court addressed the potential difficulties of certifying Rule 23 overtime exemption cases … Continue Reading

Another Court Decertifies An FLSA Class

By Greg Mersol on October 18, 2010 Posted in Conditional Certification, FLSA, Nonexempt Status, Wage and Hour

As we wrote on August 31, many plaintiffs and defendants assume, if often implicitly, that conditional certification of an FLSA class is tantamount to a win for the plaintiffs. This is so even though conditionally certified classes are frequently decertified later in the case. In fact, conditional certification, despite having the name “certification” in its … Continue Reading