Federal Court Takes Scalpel to Hospital Workers' Proposed Meal Break Collective

As readers of our blog know from prior posts, we have argued successfully before several courts that the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes has an important impact on collective and class actions brought under the FLSA and state wage and hour laws.  With its July 29th ruling in Dinkel v. MedStar Health, Inc., the District of Columbia’s federal district court joined those courts that have confirmed the application of Dukes to wage and hour collective actions by citing Dukes in denying FLSA and D.C. Minimum Wage Act conditional certification of the plaintiffs’ broad proposed collective.  The ruling confirms, among other issues addressed in the court’s opinion, that Dukes provides viable arguments that aid in the defense of plaintiffs’ efforts to conditionally certify putative collective actions based on allegations of only a few.

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