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Fair Labor Standards Act Counseling and Litigation
Fair Labor Standards Act Counseling and Litigation
V&E seeks to resolve wage and hour disputes as quickly as possible — in the least costly and disruptive manner — while preserving our clients' goals and rights. During the past decade, Vinson & Elkins has routinely represented employers in Department of Labor audits, wage, and hour litigation, and internal pay practice investigations relating to workers performing a wide array of job duties across the entire compensation spectrum.
As nationally-recognized employment lawyers, we have developed significant experience in navigating the complex legal issues arising under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state wage and hour laws. V&E represents clients in employment matters in federal and state courts across the nation. We have defended clients in collective actions and multi-plaintiff litigation alleging employee misclassification and “off the clock” work, as well as successfully advocating for our clients in wage and hour disputes in courts and in arbitration proceedings.
A leader in employment counseling, we advise many clients on the proper classification of exempt and non-exempt employees, compliance with the salary requirement of the FLSA, determination of what constitutes “hours worked,” and recordkeeping requirements. We also guide clients on expanding their businesses into other states with advice on specific state wage and hour laws.
Industry Experience:- Energy
- Constructiom
- Financial services
- Health care
- Professional services
- Retail
- Transportation
Representative Matters- Represented a large engineering and construction company in an FLSA collective action in which plaintiffs contended that periodic impermissible salary deductions destroyed their exempt status. The case was resolved early in the litigation on a favorable basis to the client. V&E also worked with the client to develop systemic payroll procedures to prevent future allegations of non-compliance.
- Defended a technology company in an FLSA collective action involving claims that employees in a particular job title throughout the company were misclassified as exempt because they did not meet test for administrative exemption. The court denied class certification, and the case settled thereafter for a nominal amount.
- Represented a trucking company in an FLSA collective action in which the plaintiffs contended that they were misclassified as exempt employees. The court issued notice to only a subset of the class proposed by the plaintiffs, and the case settled on favorable terms.
- Defended an oilfield services company in a multi-plaintiff arbitration. Following a week-long hearing, V&E obtained a decision for our client in a multi-plaintiff arbitration alleging that services technicians’ on-call time — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — was compensable working time.
- Represented a retailer in a putative national class action involving whether inside commissioned salespersons were properly classified as exempt. The case was settled with nominal payments to a small number of claimants after the court declined to certify and send notice to the putative class.
- Represented an engineering company in a 60-plaintiff arbitration in which nuclear engineers claimed that the company’s payroll methods had destroyed their exempt status. After trying the case in arbitration, V&E obtained a decision dismissing all claims. The claimed damages in this case were $20 million.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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