Worker Bargained Away Fourth Circuit Appeal Rights in Wage Case

A worker lost the ability to revive a defunct group lawsuit alleging an auto parts manufacturer violated wage-and-hour law because he settled his individual claims with the company, according to a federal appeals court.

Former GKN Driveline North America Inc. employee James Mebane made a deal with the company before he contested a district court’s decision to decertify a conditional Fair Labor Standards Act collective and state law classes, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said in its ruling Tuesday.

“That means Mebane lacks standing to appeal the district court’s decertification order,” Judge Allison Jones Rushing, a ...