Recent Class Decision Highlights The Perils Of Exchanging Wage Information

In a workplace antitrust class action in which the plaintiffs are reportedly seeking hundreds of millions of dollars, Judge Gerald Rosen of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan recently issued a decision that highlights the risks associated with the exchange of wage information. In Cason-Merenda v. Detroit Medical Center, Case No. 06-15601, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38810 (E.D. Mich. March 22, 2012), the Court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment with respect to the plaintiffs' class claim that they had conspired to suppress the wages of their employees. However, Judge Rosen denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment with respect to the plaintiffs' class claim that the defendants' practice of exchanging wage information had the effect of unreasonably and unlawfully suppressing wages. 

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