Employer – Employee : Fair Labor Standards Act – Employee Classification – Release

Where employees sued their employer claiming that they were entitled to extra pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act after their employer misclassified some employees as exempt and failed to pay their overtime compensation, the district court properly found that the employees were non-exempt under the act, but the judgment is reversed and remanded in part because the release language on settlement checks was insufficient to notify employees of the consequences of cashing the checks, so they did not waive their FLSA claims by cashing the checks.

Judgment is affirmed in part; reversed in part.

Beauford v. ActionLink, LLC (MLW No. 67572/Case No. 13-3265 – 19 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8^th Circuit, Melloy, J.) Appealed from U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas, Holmes, J. (Timothy A Steadman, Little Rock, Arkansas, argued for appellant; John T Holleman,  and Maryna O. Jackson appeared on the brief) (Joseph D. Weiner, Minneapolis, argued for appellee; Andrew James Voss, Stephanie D. Sarantopoulos, Eva Camille Madison and Jeffrey A. Timmerman appeared on the brief).

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