Court Opinion

ID: 9493476
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:09:29.815823+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:52.046772
License: Public Domain

MICHAEL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent because the majority’s reading of FLSA’s testimony clause is unnecessarily cramped. According to Peter Ball’s complaint, Memphis Bar-B-Q fired him because the company believed he was about to testify against it in a case soon to be filed by another employee who was cheated out of overtime pay. The majority readily acknowledges that “Ball’s allegations describe morally unacceptable retaliatory conduct,” ante at 6, but the majority believes this conduct is beyond the scope of the Act because no “proceeding” had been “instituted” when Ball was fired. This reading of section 15(a)(3) of FLSA is too narrow, and it frustrates congressional purpose.
Ball’s complaint (when taken as true) describes an indisputable case of retaliatory discharge. From October 1996 through June 7, 1997, Ball was the manager at a Memphis Bar-B-Q restaurant in Virginia. Ball learned that a waiter was mad at the company because it had cheated him out of wages and overtime by “turning back the clock ... in the computerized timekeeping system.” Ball also learned that the waiter had retained a lawyer and “was preparing to bring suit” against Memphis for violation of FLSA. Ball reported what he had learned to Memphis’s president, and on June 2, 1997, the president contacted Ball to discuss the impending lawsuit. The president first asked Ball how he would testify in a deposition; the president then suggested how Ball “could testify as part of a lawsuit.” Ball responded, saying that he “could not testify to the version of events as suggested” by the president. Ball was fired five days later, and he asserts he was fired for saying that he would testify truthfully in the waiter’s anticipated lawsuit.
The question is whether these facts establish that Ball was “discharge[d] ... because [he was] about to testify in ... [a] proceeding [instituted under FLSA].” 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3). The more specific question is whether Ball’s claim fails because the waiter had not filed his lawsuit (he was preparing to file it) when Ball was fired. The answer depends on whether section 15(a)(3) is read narrowly or broadly. The majority reads it very narrowly, holding that “it is not enough that the proceeding be impending or anticipated; it must be ‘instituted.’ ” Ante at 7 (emphasis *366in original). This interpretation is wrong because the words “proceeding [instituted under FLSA]” must be read in the context of the entire testimony clause. Moreover, the testimony clause must be broadly construed because FLSA is a remedial statute. As a result, the words in question— “proceeding [instituted under FLSA]”— simply describe the type of case that triggers the protection of FLSA’s testimony clause; they do not require that a lawsuit actually be filed before retaliation for expected testimony is outlawed. Thus, if an employee with a FLSA claim is preparing to file a lawsuit, and the employer fires a second employee because he will testify against the employer, it is reasonable to say that the second employee was “discharge[d] ... because [he was] about to testify in ... [a] proceeding [instituted under FLSA].” 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3).
The central purpose of FLSA is to achieve certain minimum labor standards for covered employees. See 29 U.S.C. § 202; Mitchell v. Robert De Mario Jewelry, Inc., 361 U.S. 288, 292, 80 S.Ct. 332, 4 L.Ed.2d 323 (1960). The Act, for example, provides for the payment of a specified minimum wage, provides for increased pay for overtime, and outlaws oppressive child labor. See 29 U.S.C. §§ 206, 207, 212. The Supreme Court has declared these provisions, along with the rest of FLSA, to be “remedial and humanitarian in purpose.” Tennessee Coal, Iron & R.R. Co. v. Muscoda Local No. 123, 321 U.S. 590, 597, 64 S.Ct. 698, 88 L.Ed. 949 (1944). Employees themselves are the backbone of FLSA’s enforcement scheme. Thus, “Congress did not seek to secure compliance with [FLSA] standards through continuing detailed federal supervision,” DeMario, 361 U.S. at 292, 80 S.Ct. 332; instead, “it chose to rely on information and complaints received from employees seeking to vindicate rights claimed to have been denied,” id. Congress recognized that “effective enforcement could ... only be expected if employees felt free” to register complaints and provide information and testimony. Id. To foster an environment in which employees are willing to speak out about violations, Congress inserted the anti-retaliation provision, section 15(a), that we interpret today. Because employees who are willing to report, or provide information about, violations must be protected and because FLSA is a remedial statute, FLSA “must not be interpreted or applied in a narrow, grudging manner.” Tennessee Coal, Iron & R.R. Co., 321 U.S. at 597, 64 S.Ct. 698 (emphasis added). Because the Supreme Court has recognized that broad coverage is essential to employee protection, the Court has instructed us to construe FLSA “ ‘liberally to apply to the furthest reaches consistent with congressional direction.’ ” Tony & Susan Alamo Found. v. Secretary of Labor, 471 U.S. 290, 296, 105 S.Ct. 1953, 85 L.Ed.2d 278 (1985) (quoting Mitchell v. Lublin, McGaughy & Assocs., 358 U.S. 207, 211, 79 S.Ct. 260, 3 L.Ed.2d 243 (1959)). Our court has followed that instruction, see, e.g., Roy v. County of Lexington, 141 F.3d 533, 540 (4th Cir.1998), at least until today.
Two FLSA cases applying the canon of broad construction of remedial statutes, Saffels v. Rice, 40 F.3d 1546 (8th Cir.1994), and Brock v. Richardson, 812 F.2d 121 (3d Cir.1987), are instructive because they have facts somewhat similar to this case. In Saffels and Brock the employees were fired because the employer believed that the employees had reported FLSA violations to the authorities. As it turned out, the employer was mistaken, and the question was whether the employees had a claim under section 15(a)(3), which also makes it unlawful for an employer “to discharge ... any employee because such employee has filed any complaint.” 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3). In Saffels the Eighth Circuit noted that a “broad reading” of section 15(a)(3) was required and held that the employees had a retaliatory discharge claim, even though they had not made (or filed) a complaint. Saffels v. Rice, 40 F.3d at 1549. Earlier, the Third Circuit in Brock gave section 15(a)(3) the same *367broad interpretation, observing that “the discharge of an employee in the mistaken belief that the employee had engaged in protected activity creates the same atmosphere of intimidation as does the discharge of an employee who did in fact complain of FLSA violations.” Brock v. Richardson, 812 F.2d at 125. The Third Circuit went on to hold that “a finding that an employer retaliated against an employee because the employer believed the employee complained or engaged in other activity specified in section 15(a)(3) is sufficient to bring the employer’s conduct within that section.” Id. In the case before us, Ball alleges that Memphis fired him because it believed he was about to testify in a FLSA lawsuit that another employee was preparing to file. This allegation states a claim under section 15(a)(3)’s testimony clause, even though the lawsuit was simply anticipated but not filed.
The majority’s decision is a hard blow to FLSA’s central purpose of achieving fair labor standards. The decision undermines FLSA’s enforcement scheme by stripping protection from many employees who witness unfair labor practices. As of today, the testimony clause does not protect a potential witness from retaliation until a lawsuit has been filed. Employers thus have free rein to retaliate against employees who would testify against them, so long as they retaliate before any lawsuit is filed. This will surely serve to dry up sources of information, a result that is directly contrary to Congress’s obvious intent. Moreover, today’s decision has negative consequences for our entire system of dispute resolution. Many FLSA claims involve relatively small amounts of money and should be settled informally (and promptly) without litigation. Today’s decision will force lawyers to consider filing suit immediately in order to protect potential witnesses from retaliation. Congress was not aiming for these results when it passed FLSA in 1938.
I recognize that the principle of broad construction of remedial statutes does not allow a judge to go beyond reasonable bounds or to ignore the evident meaning of a statute. See Norman J. Singer, Sutherland Statutory Construction § 60.01 (5th ed.1992). My interpretation fits within this framework, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s instruction that FLSA is to be construed “ ‘liberally to apply to the furthest reaches consistent with congressional direction.’ ” Tony & Susan Alamo Found., 471 U.S. at 296, 105 S.Ct. 1953 (quoting Mitchell, 358 U.S. at 211, 79 S.Ct. 260). As a result, it is reasonable to say that when Memphis fired Ball because he was about to testify in a FLSA suit a company employee was preparing to file, Ball was fired “because [he was] about to testify in ... [a] proceedingfinstituted under FLSA].” 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3). The majority’s contrary reading strips the testimony clause of much of its force.
I would reverse the district court and allow Ball to proceed with his case.