On May 30, 2008, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania issued an important decision reaffirming the right of unionized prison guards employed in Scranton, Pennsylvania to pursue their Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) claim notwithstanding the existence of a collective bargaining agreement between their union and their employer.  In Gallagher, et al. v. Lackawanna County, 3:07-cv-00912-TIV, a group of Lackawanna County (PA) sergeants and corrections officers filed a federal court lawsuit asserting that, under the FLSA, they were entitled to full compensation, including overtime pay, for time spent attending daily pre-shift meetings and picking up radio batteries.  The county sought dismissal of the lawsuit, alleging that the existence of a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) between the county and the prison prohibitted the plaintiffs from pursuing their FLSA lawsuit in federal court. (more…)

Pennsylvania employment lawyers and labor lawyers often ask me about the extent to which unionized workers are protected by the FLSA. The short answer is that the FLSA covers unionized workers so long as the overtime dispute is grounded in the FLSA rather than the collective bargaining agreement.
The following text is adopted from a legal brief I recently filed in the United States District Court in Scranton, Pennsylvania. In that case, I represent a group of unionized prison guards who allege that their employer, Lackawanna County, has violated the FLSA by failing to pay them for time spent attending mandatory, pre-shift meetings. I hope this excerpt will help Pennsylvania employment lawyers and Pennsylvania overtime attorneys in their quest to protect the overtime rights of all workers, including those in unions.
In Barrentine v. Arkansas-Best Freight System, 450 U.S. 728 (1981), unionized truck drivers brought a federal court lawsuit alleging that their employer violated the FLSA by failing to pay them for time spent “conduct[ing] a safety inspection of their trucks before commencing any trip” and for time spent “transport[ing] any truck failing such inspection to [the company’s] on-premesis repair facility.” Id. at 730. The employer asserted that a contractual grievance process prohibited thedrivers from pursuing the FLSA claims in federal court. The Supreme Court disagreed. (more…)