HR Management & Compliance

Supreme Court Won’t Address FLSA Pleading Standard

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to resolve a purported split among the federal appellate courts about the content required for a successful Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals addressed the issue most recently, holding that employees must allege specific facts in FLSA complaints; workers cannot merely restate potential violations spelled out in the statute, it ruled last year in a case of first impression. By raising its standard for FLSA complaints in Landers v. Quality Communications, Inc., No. 12-15890 (9th Cir. Nov. 12, 2014), the court joined the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Circuits but split from the 11th.

The case involved an employee, Greg Landers, alleging that his employer failed to pay him overtime. A district court dismissed his claims and on appeal, the 9th Circuit found that, according to recent Supreme Court precedents, allegations must contain sufficient factual content “to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Rather than merely alleging that an employer failed to pay its workers overtime, for example, complaints now must plausibly state a claim that the employer failed to pay required wages. Landers’ complaint never mentioned a specific workweek for which he was not paid minimum wage or in which he worked more than 40 hours and was not paid overtime, the court explained. Although his allegations raised the possibility of a violation, “a possibility is not the same as plausibility,” the court said, upholding the lower court’s dismissal.

The appeals courts that have addressed the issue disagree on just how much detail is required.

In Pruell v. Caritas Christi, 678 F.3d 10, 13 (1st Cir. 2012), the 1st Circuit held that employees alleging only that they were not paid overtime had not met the new standard. Likewise, the 2nd Circuit held in Lundy v. Catholic Health System of Long Island Inc., 711 F.3d 106 (2nd Cir. 2013) that the plaintiffs needed to allege at least “a single workweek in which they worked at least 40 hours and also worked uncompensated time in excess of 40 hours.” And in Davis v. Abington Memorial Hospital, 765 F.3d 236 (3rd Cir. 2014), the 3rd Circuit said a statement that employees worked several hours of unpaid work each week was insufficient.

The 11th Circuit, differs, however. It held in Secretary of Labor v. Labbe, 319 F. App’x 761, 763 (11th Cir. 2008) that allegations that an employer “repeatedly violated stated provisions of the FLSA by failing to pay covered employees minimum hourly wages and to compensate employees who worked in excess of forty hours a week at the appropriate rates” met the High Court’s standard.

Landers asked the Supreme Court to review the 9th Circuit’s ruling. Specifically, he said, the court should answer the following:

Whether plaintiffs seeking overtime under the FLSA must support their allegations with detailed facts demonstrating the time, place, manner, or extent of their uncompensated work; or whether it is sufficient if plaintiffs’ allegations give defendants fair notice of plaintiffs’ claim for overtime and the grounds upon which it rests.

The court denied his petition April 20.

For more information on the FLSA, visit Thompson’s HR Compliance Expert.

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