Among the legal developments we report on below from October is a decision by a federal district court in California certifying a lawsuit for independent contractor misclassification as a collective action under the federal wage and hour law, allowing similarly situated individuals to join the lawsuit seeking unpaid overtime. What was most significant about the decision is that the certification was based on little more than threadbare allegations and conclusory declarations. Unlike the more rigorous standard for class action certification under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure governing class actions, federal court judges have traditionally been given wide latitude in deciding whether to grant collective action certification for alleged violations under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Few judges, however, have applied a more lenient standard than the one applied by the court in the first case summarized below, where it granted collective certification based on plaintiff’s declaration that she and other prospective members of the collective action “often worked more than 40 hours a week,” despite documentary evidence to the contrary. How can a business avoid the costs of defending against these types of claims that can turn into collective actions so easily? The answer is to elevate compliance with state and federal IC laws, minimizing the odds of being sued. Savvy companies have done so using a process such as IC Diagnostics (TM), which restructures,...
PICKENS, S.C. — Pickens city councilmembers determined Mayor Isaiah Scipio acted out of procedure following a tense executive session on Tuesday, while leaving ongoing disputes concerning SLED and...