Morgan v. Family Dollar Stores
551 F.3d 1233 (11th Cir. 2008)
An opt-in class of 1,424 store managers, in a collective action certified by the district court, sued their employer for unpaid overtime wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The jury found that the managers were not exempt executives and awarded them over $19 million for unpaid overtime. The evidence showed that the managers, who were salaried employees, spent up to 90% of their time performing manual labor, such as unloading trucks and cleaning the employer's stores; the managers had little or no traditional managerial discretion, such as making hiring and firing decisions; and the managers worked a minimum of 52 hours per week. The court held that (1) the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to decertify the collective action that was brought under 29 U.S.C.S. § 216(b) because the district court carefully followed the two-stage procedure for certifying a collective action, and the evidence showed that the 1,424 managers in the class were similarly situated in at least 14 key areas, regardless of store size and sales volume; (2) the executive exemption defense of 29 U.S.C.S. § 213(a)(1) did not apply because the evidence showed that the managers' primary duty was not management but consisted of manual labor; and (3) the evidence was sufficient to make a finding of willful violation under 29 U.S.C.S. § 255(a), which in turn prevented a finding of good faith that would have impacted the assessment of liquidated damages under § 216(b).