Test Your HR Legal Knowledge: Retaliatory Discharge

Are you an HR legal expert? Here’s a real court case to help test your HR legal knowledge. Review the facts of the case, tell us which side you think prevailed, and find out if you’re right!

The Case: FLSA Retaliatory Discharge – Rosenfield v. Global Trans Enterprises

The Facts:

• Fair Labor Standards Act General Rule: FLSA protects all non-managerial employees’ oral complaints of FLSA violations from retaliation of any kind, including discharge.
• FLSA Managerial Exception: A manager must step out of his/her normal business role to be protected by the FLSA’s anti-retaliation provisions. Simply performing his or her job is not enough to be protected.
• Plaintiff, who was a manager, complained orally to company management eight times in one year that the company was not complying with FLSA. Plaintiff also wrote 27 weekly and monthly reports to her supervisors about the alleged FLSA violations.
• FLSA was not part of the plaintiff’s responsibilities.
• The company took action on some of the alleged misclassification, but the plaintiff complained all recommendations were not implemented.
• Plaintiff was fired five days after her last complaint.

The Question: Can the plaintiff maintain an FLSA retaliation discharge claim?

Yes

No

Interested in learning more about FLSA or employment law? Check out these resources from CUPA-HR:

• Just the Facts: Key Court Decisions of 2014
• Fair Labor Standards Act – Knowledge Center Toolkit
• All Things FLSA Overtime

To explore the latest HR-related court cases and rulings, plan to join us for the Legal Update Super Session presented by CUPA-HR General Counsel and Saul Ewing LLP Partner Ira Shepard and Emily Edmunds of Saul Ewing LLP at the CUPA-HR Annual Conference and Expo 2016, September 25-27 in Washington, D.C.

To find out more about the new FLSA overtime regulations at the CUPA-HR Annual Conference, register for the conference and the FLSA preconference workshop, where you’ll learn what steps need to be in place by December 1 and communication strategies that are being implemented at campuses nationwide.