Atlanta Employment Attorneys Blog
Collective actions (which are highly similar to class actions except they litigate workers’ Fair Labor Standards Act claims against their employers) are occurring more frequently. This reality serves as a reminder of the importance, as an employer, of ensuring complete compliance when it comes to the minimum wage, overtime, classification, and other pay practices covered by the FLSA. If you are a worker who has been denied the pay the FLSA requires – or you are an employer with questions about the FLSA and FLSA collective actions – you should make sure you have reliable answers and information. You can do that by getting your advice from an experienced Atlanta wage and hour lawyer.
Like class actions, collective actions may include both named plaintiffs and additional plaintiffs who subsequently “opt-in.” Some employers, when facing collective actions far from their “home” base of operations, have used the presence of these “opt-in” plaintiffs to fight the collective action on jurisdictional grounds, including one employer that scored a successful outcome recently.
The employer, a Texas-based construction company, employed workers to construct, among other things, buildings that housed livestock. A Wisconsin employee sued the employer in a federal court in that state, alleging that the employer illegally underpaid him by wrongfully classifying him as exempt under the agricultural worker exemption.
Three Federal Appeals Courts Side With Employers
The worker sought to include as potential plaintiffs a nationwide group of employees. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, however, earlier this month declared that the group of workers who could “opt-in” to this collective action was limited to employees who had worked in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin federal court could not exercise personal jurisdiction over the Texas employer and its non-Wisconsin employees, according to the appeals court.
Back in August 2021, two federal appellate courts reached similar conclusions. The 6th Circuit (which covers federal actions in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan) and the 8th Circuit (which spans seven states from Arkansas to the Dakotas) both ruled for the respective employers, ruling that federal courts could not exercise personal jurisdiction over an employer if neither the employer nor the opt-in worker(s) had sufficient minimum contacts with the state. After those rulings, the 3d Circuit (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware) reached a similar outcome. The 1st Circuit (parts of New England) has reached the opposite conclusion.
A Nearby Federal District Court Sides With Employees
The 11th Circuit Courts Appeals (Georgia, Florida, and Alabama) has not weighed in on this important question, but one Georgia district court has… and it reached the opposite conclusion from what those three federal appeals courts determined.
In 2020, Publix Supermarkets failed in its bid to exclude non-Georgia departmental managers from a collective action for unpaid overtime initiated by a Gwinnett County deli manager. The Gwinnett County manager sought to certify a nationwide group of Publix departmental managers, while the supermarket sought to limit the case to managers who worked in Georgia. The federal court for the Northern District of Georgia, like the 1st Circuit court, ruled that current U.S. Supreme Court precedent “framed the specific jurisdiction analysis at the level of the suit,” meaning that the jurisdictional focus falls solely on the employer and the employee(s) named in the lawsuit, not on the opt-in plaintiffs.
What’s Next?
As an employee, if you have a case that demonstrates a potential need for an FLSA action in Georgia, a collective action could be a powerful tool. The Northern District court’s Publix decision shows that the court is willing to allow plaintiffs from across the country to opt-in and join the lawsuit. (That case eventually yielded a $7.2 million settlement for the managers.)
As a Georgia employer, the decisions indicate a possibility of defeating, or at least reducing, the size and scope of a collective action if you are hauled into federal court in some far-off state like New Jersey or Minnesota. If you’re an out-of-state employer facing a potential collective action here in Georgia, you need experienced and aggressive legal counsel to put forward your best defense in a matter that may include a nationwide array of plaintiffs.
Whether you are a Georgia worker, a Georgia employee, or you are from another state but facing a federal collective action in the Peach State, the experienced Atlanta wage and hour attorneys at the law firm of Parks, Chesin & Walbert can help. Whether you simply have questions or face an immediate litigation need, our team possesses the skills and the knowledge necessary to deliver results for you. Contact us today us at 404-873-8048 or through this website to schedule a consultation to find out more.