Employment Litigation
For more information, please visit our Employee Rights website at www.employeerightscounsel.com.
Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP’s Employment Practice Group is a recognized leader in protecting workers’ rights. The firm is dedicated to representing employees, independent contractors, and all other workers who have been denied proper compensation or suffered discrimination, retaliation, or other unlawful employment practices at the hands of their employers. The firm also pursues claims on behalf of whistleblowers alleging fraudulent or unlawful activities by their employers and executives who have been denied compensation in breach of their employment contracts.
Faruqi & Faruqi attorneys represent workers across the county in both individual and class actions against employers that have failed to comply with state and/or federal laws governing minimum wage, hours worked, overtime, meal and rest breaks, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and other employment related practices. Indeed, the firm’s attorneys have extensive experience litigating claims under, inter alia, Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as the New York Labor Law and New York State and City Human Rights Laws. Faruqi & Faruqi attorneys also actively investigate and pursue no-poach cases involving unlawful restraints on trade, which artificially depress employee compensation.
In prosecuting claims on behalf of aggrieved employees, Faruqi & Faruqi has successfully defeated countless summary judgment motions, won numerous class and collective certification motions, and obtained significant monetary recoveries for their clients. In the course of litigating these claims, the firm has been a pioneer in developing the growing area of wage-and-hour law. By way of example only, in Creely, et al. v. HCR ManorCare, Inc., No. 3:09-cv-02879 (N.D. OH), Faruqi & Faruqi, along with its co-counsel, obtained one of the first decisions to reject the application of the Supreme Court’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 23 class certification analysis in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, et. al., 131 S. Ct. 2541 (2011) to the conditional certification process governing collective actions under the FLSA. The firm also won a groundbreaking decision for employees seeking to prosecute wage-and-hour claims on a collective basis in Symczyk v. Genesis Healthcare Corp., et al., No. 10-3178 (3d Cir. 2011). In Symczyk, the Third Circuit reversed the district court’s ruling that an offer of judgment mooted a named plaintiff’s claim in an action asserting wage-and-hour violations of the FLSA. Notably, the Third Circuit also affirmed the two-step process conditional certification in FLSA cases. The Creely and Symczyk decisions have since been readily relied upon by numerous courts and plaintiffs in subsequent wage-and-hour actions.
Some of the firm’s more recent non-confidential recoveries include Feliciano, et al. v. Metro. Transp. Auth., et al., No. 18-cv-00026-VSB (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 21, 2020), where the firm secured a recovery of $5.4 million on behalf of a class of Sergeants and Lieutenants challenging MTA’s unfair employment and wage practices. Similarly, in Morell, et al. v. NYC Green Transp. Grp., LLC, et al., No. 1:18-cv-00918-PKC-VMS (E.D.N.Y. May 8, 2019), the firm recovered $700,000 for a class of drivers, which represented an incredible 100% of their wage damages as well as an additional 75% of their liquidated damages stemming from their wage claims. In Izzio, et al. v. Century Golf Partners Mgmt., L.P., 3:14-cv-03194-M (N.D. Tex. Feb. 13, 2019), the firm obtained a $1.425 million settlement for a class of servers and bartenders challenging unlawful service charge and tip retention practices. In Strong, et al. v. Safe Auto Ins. Grp., Inc., et al., Case No. 2:16-cv-765 (S.D. Ohio Aug. 28, 2017), the firm secured a $250,000 settlement for class members, representing 82% of their unpaid overtime and statutory damages. In Run Them Sweet, LLC v. CPA Global LTD, et al., No. 1:16-cv-1347 (E.D. Va. Oct. 6, 2017), the firm obtained a $5.6 million settlement for 2,917 class members nationwide. Also, in Foster, et al. v. L-3 Commc’ns EoTech, Inc., et al., No. 6:15-cv-03519-BCW (W.D. Mo. July 7, 2017), the firm secured a $51 million class action settlement.
The firm routinely represents workers in both judicial and administrative proceedings, asserting violations of federal, state, and municipal laws prohibiting discrimination and retaliation both in and outside of the workplace. The firm has secured millions of dollars in confidential settlements for their clients in these cases.
The firm’s Employment Practice Group also represents participants and beneficiaries of employee benefit plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1874 (“ERISA”). In particular, the firm protects the interests of employees in retirement savings plans against the wrongful conduct of plan fiduciaries. Often, these retirement savings plans constitute a significant portion of an employee’s retirement savings. ERISA requires an employer to act in the best interests of the plan’s participants, including the selection and maintenance of retirement investment vehicles. The firm pursues cases on behalf of aggrieved plan participants where a company or certain of its officers breached their fiduciary duty by allowing its retirement plans to invest in shares of its own stock despite having access to materially negative information concerning the company which significantly impacts its stock’s value.
The firm’s Employment Practice Group also represents wrongfully terminated employees in actions under both federal and state whistleblower laws, such as the False Claims Act. Often, current and former employees of business entities that contract with, or are otherwise bound by obligations to, the federal and state governments become aware of wrongdoing that causes the government to overpay for a good or service, thereby giving rise to a cause of action under the False Claims Act. Such cases often arise in context of Medicare and Medicaid fraud, pharmaceutical fraud, defense contractor fraud, federal government contractor fraud, and fraudulent loans and grants. For instance, in United States of America, ex rel. Ronald J. Streck v. Allergan, Inc., et al., No. 2:08-cv-05135-ER (E.D. Pa.), the firm represented a whistleblower in an un-sealed case alleging fraud against thirteen pharmaceutical companies who underpaid rebates they were obliged to pay to state Medicaid programs on drugs sold through those programs.
Faruqi & Faruqi has been fighting for workers’ rights for over 25 years. The Employment Practice Group has challenged the practices of major business and corporations across the country and have recovered billions of dollars for their clients.