In O’Grady v. Bluecrest Capital Mgmt. LLP, No. 15-CV-1108 SHS, 2015 WL 3740701 (S.D.N.Y. June 15, 2015), the court dismissed, under FRCP 12(b)(6), plaintiff’s claims for a bonus and severance pay. This case illustrates that courts will look to the terms of an employee’s employment agreement when assessing those claims. As to plaintiff’s claim for a…
Read More Court Rejects Terminated Employee’s Claim to Bonus and SeveranceIn Rosas v. Alice’s Tea Cup LLC, 14-cv-8788 (SDNY July 6, 2015), the court emphasized that “the protections of the FLSA are available to citizens and undocumented workers alike”, and entered a protective order precluding defendants from seeking discovery of the plaintiffs’ immigration status, tax returns, or current employers. Plaintiffs asserted that defendants failed to pay them…
Read More Court Denies FLSA Defendants Access to Plaintiffs’ Immigration Status, Tax Returns, or Current EmployersIn Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures (decided July 2, 2015), the Second Circuit addressed a question of first impression in this Circuit, namely, when an unpaid intern is entitled to compensation as an employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In this case, unpaid interns working on the Fox Seachlight-distributed film Black Swan or at Fox’s…
Read More Second Circuit Clarifies When Interns are “Employees”, and Entitled to Wages, Under the FLSAIn Lico v. TD Bank, 2015 WL 3467159 (EDNY June 1, 2015), the Eastern District of New York held that the plaintiff successfully alleged a violation of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) § 207(r). That statute, titled “Reasonable break time for nuring mothers”, provides, in pertinent part: (A) a reasonable break time for an employee to express…
Read More Court Holds FLSA’s Lactation Statute is Privately Enforceable and Explains Remedies for ViolationIn a lawsuit filed on May 6, 2015 in the Supreme Court of the State of New York and captioned Hayblum v. Life Alert Emergency Response, Inc. et al, plaintiff alleges that his former employer – the company known for its “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” advertisements – subjected him to employment…
Read More Employment Discrimination Lawsuit Against the “I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up” CompanyIn Linder v. Innovative Commercial Sys. LLC, decided April 30, 2015, the Appellate Division, First Department affirmed the dismissal of plaintiff’s complaint alleging failure to pay commissions. Citing the Court of Appeals’ decision in Pachter v. Bernard Hodes Group, Inc., the court explained: Given the seven-year course of dealing between the parties, in which plaintiff…
Read More At-Will Commission Salesman Not Entitled to Commissions on Post-Termination PaymentsIn Greathouse v. JHS Security, 12-4521-cv (2nd Cir. April 20, 2015), the Second Circuit (panel: Carney, Pooler, Korman) held that, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kasten v. Saint-Gobain (2011), the FLSA’s retaliation provision (29 USC 215) is not restricted to written complaints to a government agency, but is broad enough to prohibit retaliation…
Read More Second Circuit: FLSA Anti-Retaliation Provision Covers Oral Complaints to Employer, Not Just Written Complaints to GovernmentThe law relating to the use of social media in litigation continues to evolve. A recent decision issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Caputi v. Topper Realty Corp. (decided Feb. 25, 2015), provides additional insight into how judges deal with this increasingly important issue. In Caputi, a wage-and-hour case, defendants…
Read More Court Allows Partial Access to Plaintiff’s Facebook AccountIn Doyle v. City of New York (SDNY 14-02831, March 4, 2015), the Southern District of New York held, in a case of first impression, that persons who perform court-ordered community service as a condition of an Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal (ACD) are not “employees” within the meaning of the federal Fair Labor Standards…
Read More Persons Who Perform Community Service as Condition of ACD Are Not “Employees” Under the FLSAIn Michael v. Bloomberg (SDNY 2/11/15) – yes, that is the actual caption – the court rejected plaintiff’s motion for a protective order and to proceed pseudonymously. Plaintiff alleges that Bloomberg engaged in violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law by failing to pay proper overtime premiums to workers in its…
Read More Court Rejects FLSA Plaintiff’s Request to Proceed Against Bloomberg Under Pseudonym