NEW YORK — Former Gawker interns will be able to notify some of the potential class members of their lawsuit via social media thanks to a recent court decision. The former interns are part of collective action wage and overtime pay lawsuit in New York federal court. In the lawsuit, the former interns allege the media company improperly classified its employees as interns in an effort to avoid paying minimum wage for all of the hours the employees’ worked. This alleged improper classification is a violation of New York labor law and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Gawker Lawsuit
In June 2013, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of three former interns who are seeking to represent other similarly situated former employees who were improperly classified as interns. According to the claim, the interns performed tasks similar to that of paid employees or tasks that should have been performed by paid employees. The interns would allegedly research and moderate comments on content that would be or had been published. The three plaintiffs allege they wrote, edited, and moderated various Gawker websites. Additionally, they claim they were subject to the same policies, communications, and supervision as paid employees.
If an internship is unpaid, employers who offer those internships cannot assign tasks to interns that should be performed by employees, nor can the employers receive immediate benefit from the work the interns perform. And interns will likely need to receive college credit. Gawker allegedly not only did not pay its interns until 2013, it was not necessarily providing college credit to interns until 2012.
Receiving Notice
For collective action lawsuits, potential class members must opt-in to the lawsuit, unlike class actions where the class members are presumed to be part of the lawsuit and they must opt-out. In both class actions and collective actions, the potential class members must receive notice of the lawsuit and their potential class member status. The notices provide information about the lawsuit and the potential class members’ rights with regards to the lawsuit. Typically notice is provided through letters, postcards, and more recently email, if a physical address or email address is known. In this case, the former interns do not have physical or email addresses for some of the potential class members. They received permission to notify those potential class members via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, depending on what contact information is available on the potential class members, which is a new approach for the court.
If you are or were an unpaid intern and you believe you performed the work of an employee, you may have a wage or overtime pay claim. Our knowledgeable team of overtime pay lawyers can be reached today at (855) 754-2795. Or you may complete our Free Unpaid Overtime Case Review form and our experienced legal team will evaluate your claim. If we accept your case, we will represent you under our No Fee Promise. This means there are no legal fees or costs unless you receive a settlement.