One year after the First Circuit said workers outside a state where a Fair Labor Standards Act collective action is being litigated can opt in, a circuit split has widened and attorneys are again seeking clarity from the U.S. Supreme Court, which previously avoided the issue.
Jan. 13 marked the anniversary of a First Circuit panel majority ruling that out-of-state workers can opt in to a collective action, affirming a Massachusetts federal court decision in Waters v. Day & Zimmermann NPS Inc., an overtime case.
Since then, the Third Circuit has come to the opposite conclusion, and the workers in that case has asked the federal justices for review.
“Ultimately this will be an issue that’s decided by the Supreme Court,” said Noah Finkel, of management-side firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
Here, Law360 explores the FLSA opt-in issue a year after the First Circuit ruling.