Alaska Employment Law

An employee loses an FLSA retaliation claim because her complaint wasn’t sufficiently detailed:

Nor did the district court err in granting Quest’s motion for summary judgment on Manuel’s retaliation claim, because Manuel’s complaints to Quest failed to meet “the minimum specificity with which an employee must assert an alleged FLSA violation in order to find protection under § 215(a)(3).” Lambert v. Ackerly, 180 F.3d 997, 1008 (9th Cir. 1999) (en banc). Manuel complained that
she was pressured to accommodate the client by working during her break or after her shift ended, while also being pressured to avoid overtime. She did not complain, however, that she was unpaid for overtime she had worked, or that she was pressured to falsify her time cards. Her complaints were therefore insufficient to have “communicate[d] the substance of h[er] allegations to the employer (e.g., that the employer has failed to pay adequate overtime, or has failed to pay the minimum wage).” Id. at 1008 (emphasis omitted).

Manuel v. Quest Diagnostics, Inc., 2009 WL _______ (9th Cir. Aug. 12, 2009)(unpub.)