Businesses, Workers Alike Cheer New FLSA Collective Action Test

A newly created standard for certifying wage-and-hour collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act is drawing praise from the Biden administration and the plaintiffs’ bar despite also scoring a win for businesses, signaling a potential compromise path forward.

A divided three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit last week instructed its district courts to no longer rubber-stamp collective actions without first requiring plaintiffs to show a “strong likelihood” that would-be claimants have similarly experienced FLSA violations.

If this requirement is met, court-approved notices of the lawsuit can be sent to potential plaintiffs informing them ...