Federal Court in New Jersey Refuses to Approve Confidentiality for Wage and Hour Settlement
Employers faced with wage and hour litigation often seek to condition settlement on the agreement of plaintiffs to keep the settlement and its terms confidential. Confidentiality is often an important condition of settlement because employers may hope to avoid “copycat” claims by other employees be concerned that disclosure of a wage and hour settlement may be viewed by the public as an “admission” of liability.
Recently, in an unpublished decision, Brumley v. Camin Cargo Control Inc., the U.S. District Court in New Jersey refused an employer’s unopposed request to seal the terms of a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) lawsuit settlement. The court stated that there is a “presumption” in favor of public access to the settlement terms so that the public knows such cases are fairly resolved.
While it is still possible, depending upon the circumstances, that employers can confidentially resolve FLSA wage and hour lawsuits, it is becoming increasingly clear that courts, as in the Brumley case, are hesitant to do so. Moreover, when an FLSA lawsuit involves a sizable number of plaintiffs, the public’s interest in disclosure of the settlement terms seems more likely to be implicated. In this respect, we note that the settlement in Brumley involved 112 plaintiffs.
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On May 19, 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor .jpg)
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