LABOR LAW- FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT- RIGHT OF EMPLOYEES TO WAIVE PAYMENT OF AWARD OF BACK WAGES

In July, 1940, the Wage-Hour Administrator obtained a consent decree restraining defendant from violating the Fair Labor Standards Act, and a stipulation was filed which provided, among other things, that defendant should restore to its employees the difference between wages actually paid and the minimum wages which should have been paid under the act. Twelve of the fifteen employees in whose favor the award was made endorsed over the checks which they received with out obtaining any actual cash, and executed releases for the amounts due to them. In the present proceeding, the administrator sought a rule to show cause why defendant should not be adjudged guilty of contempt for violation of the decree. Held, for defendant, rule discharged, and petition for adjudication in contempt dismissed because (1) the decree was unenforceable for uncertainty since no list of the employees affected by the decree was included in the court files; (2) an execution at law, rather than a contempt proceeding, would have been the proper remedy; (3) the employer and the employees had the legal right, in the absence of coercion or fraud on the part of the employer, to settle the award by waiver; and (4) even if a contempt proceeding were proper, the decree had not been violated.

Fleming v. Warshawsky & Co., (D. C. Ill. 1940) 36 F. Supp. 138.