Business Litigation - Tuesday, August 11, 2009 7:49 - 0 Comments

An update on ongoing FLSA litigation

Our firm has recently settled three significant FLSA cases on a class wide (collective action) basis, providing employees of those companies with back wages that they were wrongfully denied as a result of labor abuses. While each company’s labor violations differed slightly, each involved a common theme we continue to see in these labor abuse cases. That common theme is where employers intentionally misclassify employees as managers and independent contractors in order to escape paying overtime pay.

One of the main reasons Congress passed the FLSA law in 1938 was to prohibit employers from unfair labor practices, one of which was over-working company employees. The law is clear that if an employer works an employee more than 40 hours a week, that employer must pay a penalty, overtime pay (one and a half times the employee’s hourly rate) for that violation. Some companies try to place false titles on their employees, such as “managers,” “assistant managers” or “independent contractors” to avoid the overtime penalty. The employers force these employees to work 50 to 100 hours per week, doing pure labor, not managerial work. There are companies all over this country violating these fair labor standards and the FLSA law provides a cause of action and a remedy in a court of law.

Our law firm remains committed to protecting the labor force in this country by filing these FLSA cases where labor abuses are occurring. We are currently pushing the Dollar General litigation toward a conclusion. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Western Division, located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, recently certified a “collective action” against Dollar General, a case currently being handled by our firm. The Court has ordered a notice to be sent to all store managers of that company notifying them of the class. That notice should be issued within the next 30 days to the employees of Dollar General.

We will continue to update our readers on the 1200 individual cases filed throughout this country against Dollar General, as well as the recently certified collective action mentioned above, which is currently before U.S. District Judge Scott Coogler. If you need any additional information relating to any of the above, contact Roman Shaul, Larry Golston, Lance Gould or Dee Miles at 800-898-2034 or Roman.Shaul@beasleyallen.com, Larry.Golston@beasleyallen.com, Lance.Gould@beasleyallen.com or Dee.Miles@beasleyallen.com.