A class of employees at Chipotle in New Jersey filed a lawsuit today seeking overtime pay under the Obama Administration’s rule that raised the overtime threshold to $47,476. The suit will test the scope of the injunction issued by a Texas district court in November. Chipotle had started paying the employees overtime but then stopped shortly after the injunction issued. The lawsuit argues that the Texas injunction only prevents the U.S. DOL from enforcing the Obama rule, but that it did not invalidate the rule itself. The rule has been in limbo given the Trump Administration’s refusal to say whether it ise going to defend the rule in court. Indeed, the DOL announced today it is taking the first step toward rescinding or reconsidering the rule.
Sharon Block
Sharon Block is the Executive Director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. Prior to coming to Harvard Law School in 2017, she was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor and Senior Counselor to Secretary of Labor Tom Perez. While serving in the Obama White House as Senior Public Engagement Advisor for Labor and Working Families, Block led the historic White House Summit on Worker Voice. Early in her career she worked as an attorney at the National Labor Relations Board’s Appellate Court Branch, and returned to the NLRB in 2012 when she was appointed to serve as a member of the Board by President Obama. She also served as senior labor and employment counsel to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee under Senator Edward Kennedy. Block received her B.A. from Columbia University and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she received the John F. Kennedy Labor Law Award.More by this Author »