A Virginia medical technologist met with a senior officer to complain that her supervisor was violating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), notably by deleting overtime hours from employees' timesheets. Within a few days, the technologist was fired. Was that retaliation?

What happened. "Miller" joined Bostwick Labs in December 2007. Her evaluations, including one on April 30, 2008, gave her satisfactory or better ratings, with no disciplinary steps. On May 6, however, she and some co-workers met with the chief operating officer to report their supervisor's timesheet alterations. The officer promised to investigate.

Instead, Miller was fired on May 12, on the grounds that her conflicts with her supervisor were disruptive. Management also said her co-workers had been consulted, and they blamed all and any problems on Miller—an assertion she didn't believe. She went to court, charging both violation of her FLSA rights and retaliation for her pursuit of those rights.

A federal district court judge looked at FLSA's language, which says that employers are barred from retaliating against an employee who has "filed any complaint" or testified against the employer. The judge decided that oral complaints made internally to a private employer are not protected under FLSA. Miller appealed to the 4th Circuit, which covers Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.

What the court said. Appellate judges noted that this issue was not one they had considered before. But it seemed to them that the inclusive language of "any complaint" was meant to be read broadly, so the meaning of "filed" should also be taken loosely. And, based on Miller&rss testimony, it certainly appeared that she'd been fired for complaining, not for any other (legitimate) reason.

Judges also reviewed the U.S. Supreme Court's 2011 ruling in Kasten v. Saint-Gobain, in which justices said an FLSA complaint is protected if is "sufficiently clear and detailed for a reasonable employer to understand it, in light of both content and context, as an assertion of rights protected by the statute." So judges reversed the district judge's motion to dismiss and sent the case back to him for reconsideration. Minor v. Bostwick Labs, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, No. 10-1258 (1/27/12)

Point to remember: Many other circuits have ruled that such oral FLSA complaints are protected—the 1st (ME, MA, NH, RI); 3rd (DE, NJ, PA); 5th (LA, MS, TX); 6th (KY, MI, OH, TN); 8th (AR, IA, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD); 9th (AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, MT, NV, OR, WA); 10th (CO, KS, NK, OK, UT, WY); and 11th (AL, FL, GA).