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A New York federal judge on Friday approved a $13.5 million deal to settle a class action alleging the Duane Reade drugstore chain didn’t pay overtime wages to assistant store managers, but he refused to sign off on a provision that would have limited references to the case on the class counsel’s web or social media pages.

U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken signed off on the settlement that would end overtime pay litigation between workers and the Walgreens Co. subsidiary that has been ongoing since January 2011.

But he rejected the measure to restrict internet mentions of...

TGI Friday’s tipped workers asked a New York federal judge on Wednesday to certify a class of employees seeking a determination that the restaurant chain and its former owner denied them proper wage and hour statements, saying that granting the request will move the litigation along and let the court decide common legal issues.

The workers contended that the litigation will be made more efficient by certifying an issue class of people requesting a declaration that TGI Friday’s Inc. and former owner Carlson Restaurants Inc. violated New York labor laws by failing to provide proper...

A New York federal judge Thursday stood firm by his class certification ruling on behalf of Duane Reade Inc. assistant store managers who claim they were shorted of overtime pay, denying the pharmacy chain's bid for decertification at discovery's end.

No new evidence has come to light that convinces him a predominant common question does not exist as to whether the assistant store managers were misclassified as "exempt" workers from New York's overtime requirements, U.S. District Judge K. Paul Oetken wrote in his 20-page ruling denying decertification.

The judge had certified...

A group of current and former Petco Animal Supply Stores Inc. pet groomers urged a New York federal court on Monday to conditionally certify a class action claiming the chain forced thousands of groomers to pay for grooming tools required for them to perform their jobs.

Attorneys for the proposed class said the “plaintiffs far exceed their low burden” for certification in this case with documentation of spending between $1,000 and $3,000 to purchase and maintain tools and of Petco’s policies requiring the costs. Attorneys pushed for certification in order to “protect the rights of...

A New York federal judge refused Wednesday to toss hostile work environment claims from Suffolk Laundry Services Inc. workers who said they were repeatedly sexually harassed, leaving intact a case being pursued by several women and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

U.S. District Judge Margo K. Brodie also rejected a claim from the commercial laundry's owners — Walter and Cathy Sullivan — that they couldn't be held individually liable for the hostile work environment claims leveled in the intervenor complaint the current and former workers lodged in March 2012, less...

An argument in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday provided a window into how trial courts are grappling with the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Comcast v. Behrend on employment litigation.
 
Plaintiffs and defendants are sparring over the reach of the Comcast decision, in which the high court limited the ability of plaintiffs to sue in class actions, ruling that plaintiffs had to show common damage calculations to be certified as a class.
 
While the Comcast case was an antitrust action involving a dispute over cable subscriptions, corporate...

The law governing unpaid interns has become so murky that even a victorious party in a current case is hoping an appeals court will weigh in to clarify it.

In the past two months, two judges in the Southern District of New York have issued opposing rulings on the topic of unpaid interns. On June 11, U.S. District Judge William Pauley ruled in a summary judgment motion that interns suing film company Fox Searchlight were employees.

A month earlier, U.S. District Judge Harold Baer declined to make a similar determination, ruling that the issue of whether interns suing...

Chop't Creative Salad Company LLC was accused Tuesday in a putative class action lawsuit of paying its New York City delivery employees below state and federal minimum wage and failing to pay overtime wages or compensate them for the cost of bicycles used to deliver food.

The lawsuit was brought by four current and former employees who allege operators of the salad restaurant chain have taken unfair advantage of the Fair Labor Standard Act's tip credit, which allows employers to credit a portion of their workers' tips toward their minimum wage obligations. Chop't requires its...

A class of Gristedes workers suing the grocery chain over overtime pay urged the Second Circuit on Tuesday to uphold a $3.4 million attorneys' fee award, arguing that Gristedes' litigation tactics drove up the amount of work that needed to be done.

The plaintiffs said in a brief that U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty was well within the bounds of his discretion when he partially granted Outten & Golden LLP's fee petition and awarded $3.4 million in fees and $442,610 in costs in August, after nearly nine years of litigation.

Outten & Golden did a good job on behalf of...

Three Ecolab Inc. employees on Tuesday launched a collective action in New York federal court accusing the water, hygiene and energy services company of systematically denying its maintenance workers overtime pay by misclassifying them as exempt from federal wage laws.

Ecolab has had a nationwide policy that deprives its route managers, who perform maintenance and repair services on commercial dish-washing equipment, overtime premiums for hours they worked in excess of 40 hours in a workweek, the suit says. The lawsuit seeks certification of a nationwide class for violations of the...