Wage-hour lawsuits filed under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) represent one of the fastest growing and most problematic areas of litigation facing employers today, especially when such cases are brought as collective actions. A recent Supreme Court case based in class action analysis provides a potentially-useful analog for employers to stave off such collective actions.
Class action criteria are set forth in Fed. R. Civ. P. 23, and they allow for one or more individual named plaintiffs to sue on behalf of a large – sometimes very large – group of unnamed employees, where: 1) the number of putative class members is so large that it would be impractical for them to participate; 2) where the putative class claims are defined by common questions of law or fact; 3) where the representative plaintiffs’ claims or defenses are typical of those of everyone else; and 4) where the named plaintiffs will fairly and adequately represent the interests of the rest of the putative class.
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