Emerging Trends in Wage-Hour Class Actions 2014

Bryan Schwartz Law's principal spoke at the California Employment Lawyers Association's annual advanced wage and hour seminar last week, joining a panel with Senator Bill Monning and Scot Bernstein regarding legislative and case law developments in the last year. He presented a paper detailing emerging trends in wage-hour class actions, available here: Bryan Schwartz - Emerging Trends in Wage-Hour Class Actions 2014

Using a stock market analogy, Mr. Schwartz identified that class certification and joint employer claims are trending up, discussing extensive California and federal court precedents. He argued that the application of Wal-Mart v. Dukes to the detriment of wage/hour class actions is down, and that "drowning in arbitration" is down. Mr. Schwartz predicted that Duran v. US Bank would be the blockbuster, game-changing decision of the year. Finally, continuing the stock market theme, he identified sleeper picks, including seating cases and piece-rate cases, along with cases alleging misclassification in different industries - e.g., NFL cheerleaders.