The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) – Massachusetts’ highest court – recently held in Devaney v. Zucchini Gold that employees who prove only a violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) are not entitled to the automatic treble damages under the Commonwealth’s untimely wage payment statute, the Massachusetts Wage Act (“Wage Act”). Rather, employees are limited to a damages recovery only as provided by the FLSA, which in some circumstances can be, in addition to other remedies, double (not triple) wage damages. This SJC case, decided in the employer’s favor, comes on the heels of an employee victory at the SJC – see here for our recent blog – and settled an area of the law in which a number of trial court judges were ordering treble wage damages under such circumstances.
In Devaney, restaurant employees successfully proved an overtime violation under the FLSA. These employees could not, as a matter of law, also prove a violation of the Massachusetts Overtime Statute because restaurant employees are exempt under that statute. Nevertheless, the employees requested a treble wage damages remedy under the Wage Act for their failure to timely receive overtime wages due under the FLSA. For clarity, both the Overtime Statute and the Wage Act provide for a treble damages wage recovery. The trial judge trebled the wage damages award, and also ordered a recovery of the employees’ attorney’s fees and costs, all under the Wage Act. The judge’s damages order...
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