Recent Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion a Win for Employers in Fair Labor Standards Act Collective Actions

Collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) brought by hourly, non-exempt employees against their employers have been a thorn in the side of employers in recent years. However, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion last week, Richards v. Eli Lilly & Co ., No. 24-2574, 2025 WL 2218500, at *6 (7th Cir. Aug. 5, 2025), which increases the burden to issue notice of a collective action lawsuit to all potential plaintiffs. Richards has the potential to stop many of these actions in their tracks at an early stage to the benefit of employers.

To join a collective action lawsuit under the FLSA, an employee must affirmatively “opt-in” to the lawsuit. At the conditional certification stage of an FLSA collective action lawsuit, a court decides whether notice sho