Case 09-C-x was brought in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, by a mover for a major Chicagoland residential moving and storage company.  The opt-in Complaint, alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, details the employer’s policy and practice of failing to properly compensate employees for travel time and for time spent in preparation for individual moving jobs.  The case is pending before Judge Hart in the district court, and is in the beginning stages of litigation.

Case 09-C-x was brought in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, by a former employee in the shipping and packaging department of a large sewing machine manufacturing company.  The employee alleges that her former employer interfered with her rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) and retaliated against her for pursuing a workers compensation claim.  Specifically, the Company failed to inform the employee of her right to leave when she injured herself in the workplace and required either intermittent or continuous time off to receive medical treatment for her injury.  The Company placed her on forced leave, and terminated her employment just weeks into the leave, soon after the Company was informed that it would be responsible for providing workers compensation benefits.  The case is pending before Judge Aspen in the district court, and is in the beginning stages of litigation.

Case 09-C-x was brought in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, by a former dishwasher of a large pizza franchise which has locations throughout Chicago and the Chicagoland suburbs.  The former dishwasher alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act based upon the restaurant’s failure to pay him time and one-half (“overtime”) for the hours he worked in excess of forty hours in one workweek.  Specifically, the employer compensated the dishwasher at his straight time rate for hours over forty, and paid him in cash.  The case settled to the satisfaction of the client.

Case 09-C-x was brought in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, by a former warehouse custodian of a sheet metal fabrication and assembly corporation.  The Complaint alleges a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act based upon the employer’s misclassification of the warehouse custodian as “exempt” under the FLSA for the majority of his employment.  Specifically, the Company treated the employee as a salaried and “exempt” employee for the first fifteen years of his employment with the Company, and paid him a constant weekly salary, regardless of the number of hours over forty the employee worked in one week.  In early 2009, the Company reevaluated the employee’s status and concluded that he had always been a “non-exempt” employee, according to the “white collar exemptions” of the FLSA.  Thereafter, the Company paid the employee an hourly rate and provided overtime compensation to the employee for hours worked in excess of forty in any one workweek.  The former employee seeks damages for the three years preceding the filing of the Complaint, for the Company’s willful failure to pay him overtime for hours worked in excess of forty in one week.  The case is pending before Judge Lefkow in the district court, and is in the beginning stages of litigation.

Case 09-C-x was brought in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, by a former import operations representative of a national import/export corporation.  The opt-in Complaint alleges a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act based upon the employer’s misclassification of import operations representatives and account representatives as “exempt” pursuant to the “white-collar exemptions” of the FLSA.  The named plaintiff has sent notices of the opt-in lawsuit to all similarly situated employees who worked for the defendant in the past three years.  The case is pending before Judge Leinenweber in the district court, and is in the beginning stages of litigation.