Employment Law

Wage and Hour Law Protects Workers Who "File" Verbal Complaints
Posted by: Staff NachtLaw
September 11, 2011

There are many federal and state laws that protect employees from retaliation after they have properly filed a complaint (wage and hour violation, discrimination, sexual harassment). For instance, it is illegal for an employer to fire or demote an employee who has filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. But until the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, it wasn't entirely clear whether workers who make a verbal complaint of wage violations to their employers have "filed a complaint" within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act./p>

In Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., the employee had verbally complained that the time clocks to record working hours were beyond the changing area where the workers must wear protective gear, which forced employees to spend extra time putting on and taking off the gear. He had followed the corporation’s proper workplace grievance procedure, but he had not provided anything in writing. The company fired the employee shortly after. He brought the case to court, asserting that his dismissal was retaliation for his complaint. Of course, the employer argued that the anti-retaliations provisions do not apply because the employee had not "filed" a written complaint...

In a 6 to 2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that protection from unlawful retaliation extends to cases where the complaint is filed orally. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for the majority, wrote that the phrase "filed any complaint" in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 doesn't only apply to written complaints, since the word "filed" sometimes also concerns spoken submissions.  The court explained the purpose of the law is to protect workers from poor working conditions by encouraging them to speak up without fear of being retaliated against.  And since "illiteracy rates were particularly high among the poor" in the years before the law was passed, it is reasonable to conclude that protection from retaliation should be offered to those who complained only verbally. Moreover, if the scope of the law's protection is narrowed to only cases involving written complaints, Justice Breyer noted that the use of government hotlines and the like would be severely disrupted.

The encouraging result in the Kasten case strengthens employee protection from illegal retaliation. But it is important to note that the ruling doesn't imply that just any grumbling at all will constitute "filing a complaint."  According to the Court, "A complaint must be sufficiently clear and detailed for a reasonable employer to understand it, in light of both content and context, as an assertion of rights protected by the statute and a call for their protection."

Bringing forth a legitimate concern to your employer often involves complex legal and situational issues that are not immediately transparent. It is at times difficult to know whether you’ve adequately made your concerns known to your employer. It is also sometimes hard to determine what your next steps ought to be after you’ve filed a complaint. Knowing your rights as an employee and the laws that protect your rights are crucial in workplace dealings. The employment lawyers at Nacht Law are dedicated to fight for the employment rights that all employees are entitled and deserve.

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