Oral complaints count under FLSA, says High Court

In its third major pro-employee decision of 2011, the Supreme Court has ruled that employees don’t have to submit written complaints in order to be protected from retaliation under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The case involved Kevin Kasten, who worked at the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. plant in Portage, WI.
Kasten complained to his supervisors about the legality of the location of Saint-Gobain’s time clocks — they were placed in a spot that prevented employees from being paid for time spent donning and doffing their required protective gear.
Kasten said he made several oral complaints to various supervisory personnel, including an HR representative.
After being disciplined several times for “issues with punching in and out,” Kasten was fired. He sued, claiming he’d been let go in retaliation for objecting to the location of the time clocks.
Statute says: ‘filed any complaint’
Both federal district and appeals courts found in favor of the company, saying the FLSA requires employees to file complaints in writing.
Kasten was therefore out of luck: No documentation, no valid complaint.
But the Supreme Court overturned those decisions.
The statute guarantees retaliation protection to an employee who “has filed any complaint” about an alleged violation of the FLSA, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote.
Thus, “we must decided whether the statutory term ‘filed any complaint’ includes oral as well as written complaints within its scope. We conclude that it does.”
For a look at the full Supreme Court decision, go here.
Wider options and more work
This decision’s not good news for employers. First of all, it simply widens employees’ options for filing retaliation lawsuits — and you’ve no doubt heard about the recent epidemic of such cases.
On a more practical level, though, it means a greater burden of care and caution on the part of both supervisors and HR pros. Now, FLSA complaints of all stripes — informal, offhand or official — need to be addressed formally.
Yet another topic for your manager training sessions.