According to Seyfarth Shaw, a law firm tracking the filing of overtime lawsuits, the number of Fair Labor Standards Act cases filed in the Federal Court System is up from 1,457 cases filed in 1993 to 7,006 cases filed in 2011 to 7,064 cases filed in 2012. What if anything do these numbers mean for Maryland workers? It depends. A recent report by NELP and colleagues at UCLA and the University of Illinois attribute the increase in overtime lawsuits to the continued high violation of overtime rules by employers. Given the economic climate and attempts at cutting costs, employers continue to improperly designate employees as “independent contractors” or give them titles that do not describe their job duties in order to avoid paying employees overtime. Employers argue that the increase in lawsuits is due to the confusing nature of the overtime rules and the lucrative settlements by Plaintiffs. Yet, if employers were clearly following the rules, would they bother settling with Plaintiffs? Why not take them to court? Regardless of what accounts for this significant increase in the filing of overtime lawsuits, it is important for workers to remain cognizant of their potential right to overtime no matter what their title or job classification may be.
