Hunton Retail Law Resource

For over 30 years, most district courts throughout the country have used a two-step conditional certification process to govern certification of collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  But in its recent and game-changing opinion, Swales v. KLLM Transport Services, LLC, the Fifth Circuit rejected that two-step process and laid out a stricter framework for FLSA collective actions. This is an important decision for the retail industry, a frequent target of FLSA lawsuits, given the industry’s large workforce.  Retailers facing putative FLSA collective actions in the Fifth Circuit (Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi federal courts) will benefit from the increased early scrutiny of certification issues mandated by this decision, and retailers across the country should keep a close watch on whether the Fifth Circuit’s opinion is adopted by other federal courts.

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