Wage and Hour Class Certification: Impact of Appellate Authority Applying the Specific Jurisdiction Rule of Bristol-Myers to Collective Actions
Strategies for Future Claims Due to Restrictions on Multistate Actions and the Limits on Personal Jurisdiction
Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
- work Practice Area
Employment and Workers Comp
- event Date
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
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This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE course will address the effects of the circuit court decisions addressing Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective actions. The panel will discuss the current standards that courts apply when ruling on certification or decertification, the exercise of personal jurisdiction over corporate defendants, and the scope of FLSA collective action moving forward in 2022.
Ms. Austin handles a variety of corporate litigation and employment matters. Her corporate litigation practice focuses in the areas of energy, natural resources, premises liability, and employment law, including trade secret and non-compete disputes. Ms. Austin also has experience defending against class action lawsuits. She brings a unique background to her employment law practice to better assist corporate clients with decision making. Prior to entering private practice, Ms. Austin worked in the corporate office of a large retail company based in San Francisco. In this role, she handled employee-to-supervisor mediation.
Mr. Tripp has represented employers in matters pending before federal and state courts and administrative agencies covering the entire gamut of employment-related claims. His focus is the defense of class and collective action lawsuits under federal and state wage-and-hour laws, and the provision of preventive advice regarding wage law compliance and class action avoidance. He has defended dozens of putative wage-hour class and collective actions, ranging from “white-collar” misclassification actions to claims brought in behalf of hourly employees seeking to recover unpaid minimum, regular and/or overtime wages, amounts unlawfully deducted from wages, unpaid commissions, and gratuities. Mr. Tripp has spoken about wage-and-hour matters to numerous industry and professional associations. He has also served as a mediator for class and collective action cases and co-teaches a seminar on wage issues at Fordham Law School.
Mr. Korn focuses his practice on defending employers across the country in complex class and collective action litigation, primarily involving wage and hour issues under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage and hour laws, mass layoffs and plant closings under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, and background check documentation under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. He has substantial experience working with employers in many industries, including the hospitality and restaurant, construction and heavy equipment, mining, pharmaceutical, healthcare, and manufacturing industries.
On Aug. 17, 2021, in Canaday v. The Anthem Companies Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit became the first appellate court to hold that only individuals with a connection to the forum state may join a collective action under the FLSA. This ruling protects employers by limiting their liability and expense in litigating claims of nonresident opt-in employees who join an FLSA collective action. It also prevents an employee from engaging in forum shopping of federal courts for the most favorable outcomes.
In Vallone v. The CJS Solutions Group d/b/a The HCI Group, the Eighth Circuit affirmed a district court's conclusion that Bristol-Myers Squibb applied to limit the scope of an FLSA action. In Vallone, the plaintiffs asked the district court to certify a nationwide collective action that included thousands of workers over several years, including workers who did not live in the forum state, Minnesota, or work for HCI (a Florida company). The district court declined to conditionally certify a nationwide collective action, instead conditionally certifying only a limited group of individuals whose work for HCI occurred in Minnesota or who were Minnesota residents.
In Waters v. Day & Zimmermann NPS Inc., a divided panel of the First Circuit disagreed, noting that the Sixth and Eighth Circuit “decision[s do not] suggest that the Fourteenth Amendment directly limits federal-court authority to entertain multi-state collective actions,” and thus concluding that those courts had overreached in extending Bristol to adjudication of nationwide federal claims in a federal court.
These decisions constitute a split among the federal circuit courts of appeal as to whether Bristol-Myers Squibb should apply to FLSA collective actions, a question that the Supreme Court ultimately may have to answer. The decisions also make "forum shopping" less attractive in the Sixth and Eighth Circuits, where plaintiffs who file collective actions against nonresident defendants will have a more difficult time achieving conditional certification of nationwide collective actions. The developments in this jurisprudence will likely impact strategy and options for employers defending putative collective litigation outside the employer's home state.
Listen as our expert panel discusses these decisions' impact on future collective and class actions in employment claims. The panel will address best practices for stakeholders seeking certification (or decertification) of such claims.
- History of restrictions in prior collective and class actions
- Bristol-Myers Squibb
- Canaday, Vallone, and Waters decisions
- Limits on multistate jurisdiction
- Limits on personal jurisdiction
- Best practices
The panel will address these and other relevant topics:
- What are the key conclusions in the Canaday decision?
- What are the primary findings in the Vallone decision?
- Why did the Waters court disagree?
- What’s next?
- How will these limitations on personal jurisdiction impact future collective actions?
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