Employment Class Actions
An employment class action lawsuit is brought by one or more plaintiffs on behalf of a class of plaintiffs who have identical claims against an employer for employment law violations. The class-action plaintiffs seek damages from the employer for the entire group instead of individual employees filing separate lawsuits.
For example, if your employer has misclassified you as an exempt employee or is refusing to pay you, a female employee, the same wages as they pay men for doing the same work, there are likely other employees at the company with the same experience, potentially giving a court grounds to certify a class action case.
Maintaining Employment Class Actions
For an employment class action lawsuit to be certified, the plaintiff’s employment claims must be representative of the claims of the other members of the potential class. For example, if the plaintiff is suing an employer for failure to pay overtime, the other members of the class must also have the same type of claim against the employer. In other words, the claim for unpaid overtime must not be unique to the class action plaintiff, but one that impacts the entire class.
In addition, the members of the potential class must be so great that it would be impractical for them to clutter a court’s docket by filing numerous cases with identical issues against the same employer. Cases that have hundreds or thousands of potential class members will meet this requirement easily; however cases with less than 40 potential class members are more difficult to certify as class actions.
The plaintiff or proposed class representative must also fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class. The plaintiff will have to show that a determination in his or her favor will be beneficial to the interests of the entire proposed class.
Speak with a California Employment Class Action Attorney Today
The employment lawyers at Glick Law Group have extensive experience in handling employment class actions. If you’re a resident of the state of California and believe you have a potential employment class action claim, contact Glick Law Group today and schedule an appointment. We may be able to help you.