Michael Kun, a Member of the Firm in the Labor and Employment practice, and the national Co-Chairperson of the firm's Wage and Hour, Individual and Collective Actions practice group, in the Los Angeles office, was quoted in an article titled "Dukes' Sway Over Wage-And-Hour Classes Faces 9th Circ. Test."
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Following is an excerpt:
The Ninth Circuit will hear arguments Tuesday about the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's Dukes decision on a class action lodged by employees of a Chinese-language newspaper in a case that could provide much needed guidance on the extent of the landmark ruling's reach in the wage-and-hour sphere. ?...
Although there are numerous ways the Ninth Circuit could ultimately come down in the case, employment attorneys will be watching for a confirmation from the appeals court that Dukes does apply to wage-and-hour cases, according to Michael Kun of Epstein Becker & Green, PC, who has followed the case.
Employment lawyers will also be on the lookout for the Ninth Circuit's take on the issue of whether Dukes only impacts cases where the class has a broad geographic scope or can also be used to thwart the certification of a class based on workers in a single location, Kun told Law360.
"Just the fact that the Supreme Court vacated the earlier decision in Chinese Daily News more than suggests that the Supreme Court doesn't believe that the Dukes decision is limited to discrimination cases but that it applies to wage-and-hour cases and that it doesn't believe that the Dukes decision only applies when the class is nationwide or has a broad geographic scope," Kun said. ?...
As far as what the Ninth Circuit could do, it is all just speculation at this point, but there is so much that could come out of this that I think it is fair to say almost regardless of what the Ninth Circuit says — particularly given the tortured history of the case — that whichever side ends up losing will seek cert [at the Supreme Court]," Kun said.
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