Vega v. New Forest Home Cemetery, LLC

Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-union employee’s action alleging that defendant violated Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay him for his final two weeks of work, even though Dist. Ct. based its ruling on finding that plaintiff had failed to exhaust grievance procedure specified in collective bargaining agreement (CBA) prior to filing instant lawsuit. While grievance procedure in instant CBA covered disputes over pay, CBA did not waive plaintiff’s FSLA statutory rights. Moreover, although agreement to arbitrate statutory claims is enforceable against aggrieved employee who wishes to pursue such claims in court rather than by way of grievance and arbitration, CBA must resolve employee’s statutory and contractual rights through grievance procedure delineated in CBA. As such, plaintiff was free to file instant lawsuit in court regardless of whether he had filed any grievance, since instant CBA did not clearly and unmistakenly require him to use grievance procedure set forth to resolve his FSLA claim.