Supreme Court Issues Ruling on Oral Complaints of Retaliation, Refuses to Clarify Where Employee Must Complain
While the US Supreme Court recently has rejected petitions for certiorari on key FLSA exemption issues, the highest court in the United States did this term elect to take up the scope of the statute’s protection of workers who make complaints of FLSA violations to their employer. As discussed in greater detail here, the Court has ruled that the FLSA’s anti-retaliation provision, 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3), applies to oral complaints, as well as written ones. The Court did not decide the related issue of whether such a complaint is protected when made internally, to the employer, or only where it is made to a public agency (such as the Department of Labor). This ruling does not provide the clarification most had hoped for, but makes clear that a cautious employer will treat all such complaints by an employee as protected activity under the statute.
