Dive Brief:

• An oral complaint about an alleged employment law violation is just as valid as an official, written one, accoring to an article at HRMorning.com.
• In Greathouse v. JHS Security Inc., Darnell Greathouse worked as a security guard for JHS Security Inc. His boss was Melvin Wilcox, president and part-owner of JHS. During Greathouse's employment with JHS, he was, according to court papers, the victim of a number of improper employment practices, including non-payment and late payment of wages, and improper payroll deductions. Although Wilcox repeatedly told Greathouse that he would receive his outstanding paychecks, the checks never arrived.
• Greathouse later filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court claiming various FLSA and New York State law violations, including missing and improperly reduced wages and retaliation for complaining about not getting paid.

Dive Insight:

While the local magistrate awarded Greathouse only his back pay upon summary judgment against the employer, saying he never wrote down his complaint, the federal appeals court bowed to the judgment of the Supreme Court ruling in Kasten v. Saint-Gobain in 2011. The case was remanded to the district court to hear Greathouse’s lawsuit for retaliation.

Attorneys Esteban Shardonofsky and Howard Wexler of Seyfarth Shaw told HRMorning.com that following Kasten, and now Greathouse, it is even more important for employers to be sensitive to employees’ intra-company oral as well as written complaints regarding wages, overtime, and hours worked. Managers and supervisors should be trained to recognize complaints under the FLSA and corresponding state laws and to respond to them appropriately.