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State Wage Act remedies are
not available for FLSA
violations |
Devaney v. Zucchini Gold
(Massachusetts 04/14/2022)
http://case.lawmemo.com/ma/Devaney.pdf
Sent to Custom
Alerts™ subscribers on 04/15/2022
Employees sued claiming
failure to pay overtime wages as required by the Fair Labor
Standards Act (FLSA) plus violation of the Massachusetts Wage Act
for the untimely payment of overtime wages due solely pursuant to
the FLSA.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held
that the Wage Act remedies (such as treble damages) cannot be
awarded for failure to pay those wages.
The FLSA has "an
unusually elaborate enforcement scheme," including, among other
things, liquidated damages (essentially resulting in a doubling of
the wages). Those liquidated damages can be avoided by showing
that the employer acted in good faith and had a reasonable ground
for believing that it did not violate the FLSA.
The Wage
Act requires timely payment of "wages earned," and one of the
remedies is a trebling of the wages. The Wage Act does not provide
for a good faith, reasonable ground exception.
The court
found that allowing a remedy under the Wage Act would conflict
with the FLSA's comprehensive remedial scheme. Thus, when the sole
claim for overtime wages rests on the FLSA, employees are limited
to the remedies provided under the FLSA.
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