Partner Joshua Zuckerberg Interviewed About U.S. Supreme Court’s Recent Decision Concerning Oral Complaints and FLSA
Partner Joshua Zuckerberg, a member of Pryor Cashman’s Labor and Employment Group, was interviewed by Human Resource Executive for its March 29, 2011 article “Employees Win Again.”
The article discussed the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corporation. The issue was whether or not a verbal complaint is equal to a written complaint filed under the Fair Labor Standard Act.
Kevin Kasten, who lost his job after four time-clock violations, claimed his firing was in violation of the FLSA’s anti-retaliation provision. Kasten verbally reported to his manager that the time clock was difficult to access and, as a result, was the reason for his time-clock problems. The point of contention for the Court was whether Kasten’s verbal complaint should be considered a legitimate complaint under the FLSA.
In a 6-2 vote, and overturning federal appeals courts, the Supreme Court ruled that the FLSA does not only protect those who file written complaints, and workers can still sue if they believe they have suffered retaliation after making an oral, rather than written, complaint.
Zuckerberg told Human Resource Executive that he was not surprised by the decision because it was consistent with the jurisprudence direction. On the other hand, Zuckerberg notes, the decision may in fact open the floodgates for a lot more “he said, she said”-type scenarios. “Now , all you need to do is say I made a verbal complaint,” he says. “It does make it easier to bring these claims, will probably create more litigation and can be a cause of some concern to some employers.”
To read the article, please click here.
