Employer Should Bear Consequences Of Its Failure To Keep Adequate Records Of Work Performed
Vivian Brown brought an action against her former employer, Family Dollar Stores of Indiana, LP, alleging that Family Dollar failed to pay in a timely manner overtime wages due her in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, (“FLSA”). The FLSA provides that employees who work more than forty hours in a week must be paid for the excess hours at one and one-half times the regular rate of pay. An employee bears the burden of proving that he performed overtime work for which he was not properly compensated. The district court held that “while this burden is not an insurmountable one, an employee who brings suit for unpaid overtime compensation bears the burden to prove, with definite and certain evidence, the she performed work for which she was not properly compensated.” Brown was unable to identify with specificity the hours or even days for which she worked overtime that was not properly paid. Accordingly, the district court concluded that Brown's general allegations were insufficient to meet that burden and granted summary judgment in favor of Family Dollar.
On appeal, the 7th Circuit reversed, holding that where an employer failed to keep the proper and accurate records required by the FLSA, the employer rather than the employee should bear the consequences of that failure. To place the burden on the employee of proving damages with specificity would defeat the purpose of the FLSA where the employer's own actions in keeping inadequate or inaccurate records had made the best evidence of such damages unavailable. In such a situation, an employee has carried out his burden if he proves that he has in fact performed work for which he was improperly compensated and if he produces sufficient evidence to show the amount and extent of that work as a matter of just and reasonable inference. The burden then would shift to the employer to produce evidence of the precise amount of work performed or to negate the reasonableness of the inference to be drawn from the employee's evidence. If the employer fails to meet that burden, a court may award damages even though they are approximations. Applying that standard, the court concluded that Brown produced sufficient evidence of damages to withstand summary judgment.
Brown v. Dollar Family Stores
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction includes Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.