The United Cerebral Palsy Association of Oregon and Southwest Washington along with eight individuals representing thousands of Oregonians with intellectual or physical disabilities filed a class action lawsuit on January 25, 2012 against Governor John Kitzhaber and top managers at the Department of Human Services.

Advocates hope the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Portland, will set a national precedent and end the practice of having people with disabilities spend their days in “sheltered workshops,” where they complete repetitive or rote tasks for a sub-minimum wage and without the opportunity for training or advancement. Read more…

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NPC) on January 25, 2012, announced an agreement to resolve the nationwide wage and hour class action against NPC currently pending in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

NPC has agreed to end the ongoing proceedings and provide a payment of up to $99 million for eligible class members.  This settlement resolves the wage and hour claims brought in 2006, as well as additional wage and hour claims covering a more recent time period.

In the lawsuit, sales representatives contended they were not exempt from overtime.  The settlement reportedly covers over seven thousand current and former Novartis sales representatives.

The agreement remains subject to final court approval, which may take several months.

The Seventh Circuit today affirmed the Rule 23(b)(3) certification of two classes of bank employees alleging state overtime violations.  Ross v. RBS Citizens, dba Charter One and Citizens Financial Group. No. 10-3848 (January 27, 2012). The district court had certified a class of non-exempt tellers subject to an unofficial policy of denying them overtime pay, and a class of branch managers misclassified as exempt, as the majority of their time was spent on non-exempt work.  The opinion addressed two questions: 1) whether the class certification order “define[d] the class and the class claims, issues, or defenses” as required by Rule 23(c)(1)(B), and; 2) whether the classes satisfied Rule 23(a) commonality requirement as enunciated in the Dukes v. Wal-Mart case. Read more…

A federal judge has approved a $35.5 million settlement in a class action in which plaintiffs charged that Babies ‘R’ Us and a group of baby product manufacturers violated antitrust law.

The class action charged that Babies “R” Us conspired with the manufacturers to restrict competition by requiring all retailers to sell their goods at or above a minimum resale price, and thus, that the class paid inflated prices for products, Judge Brody said Tuesday in her memorandum opinion in McDonough v. Toys ‘R’ Us Inc. and Elliott v. Toys ‘R’ Us Inc. Read more…

The US Supreme Court on January 17, 2012, turned down an appeal from Applebee’s International Inc., which is battling a lawsuit from more than 5,500 bartenders and servers accusing the restaurant chain of underpaying them.   The high court declined to hear Applebee’s case, which focuses on a practice in which restaurants pay employees reduced minimum wage by factoring in the extra boost provided by tips. Read more…