Category: Class and Collective Actions

Quirky Question #278: DOL Doubles the FLSA Salary Basis Threshold

Question: Where can I find more information about the DOL’s doubling of the FLSA salary basis threshold? Did they make other changes? As an employer, what does this mean for me? And how long do I have to prepare?

Question #275: Can We Take A Stand On Employees Sitting?

Question: Some of our retail company’s employees in California are demanding chairs to sit in while they work. Management thinks it appears unprofessional to have workers sitting, but I hear the employees might have a legal right to sit down. Should management take a stand?

Quirky Question #268: E-Sign Away!

Question: We have our electronic handbook and arbitration agreement online, and all employees sign both electronically.  I saw a news blurb that a California court last year refused to enforce an arbitration agreement that was electronically signed.  Can’t we use electronic signatures in California?

Quirky Question #242 – Policing Break and Time Records Pays Off

Quirky Question #242 – Policing Break and Time Records Pays Off

Question: We are a California employer.   After all the publicity surrounding class actions over meal and break periods, we instituted automatic warnings if employees take too long or too short a meal or rest break. Is anyone really enforcing this kind of discipline or are we wasting our time?

FINRA Arbitration Rules Expanded to Exclude Collective Actions

FINRA Arbitration Rules Expanded to Exclude Collective Actions

FINRA Arbitration Rules Expanded to Exclude Collective Actions FINRA’s ban on formal class-style employment claims is now complete. On May 4, 2012, the comment period closed on a proposed change to Rule 13204 of the FINRA Code of Arbitration Procedure for Industry Disputes (“Industry Rule 13204”). See S.E.C. Release No. 34-66774. The change, approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission,...

Wal-Mart v. Dukes, No Glue in Aisle 23

Wal-Mart v. Dukes, No Glue in Aisle 23

Walmart v. Dukes, No Glue in Aisle 23 The most sweeping putative employment-discrimination class action in history was not too big to fail. The United States Supreme Court has rejected an effort by three female employees of Wal-Mart to represent a class of some 1.6 million women who had been employed by the company at its 3,400 stores nationwide at...

Courts Must Referee Expert Battles In Deciding Class Certification Question

Courts Must Referee Expert Battles In Deciding Class Certification Question

Mark’s Analysis of Class Certification Issues The Minnesota Court of Appeals recently addressed the question of whether a court could weigh competing evidence at the class certification stage.  In deciding that issue, the Court also clarified the standard of proof necessary to certify a class.  Whitaker v. 3M, 764 N.W.2d 631 (MN Ct. App. 2009).  In the past, many courts...