United States Seventh Circuit

In an action brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act's retaliation provision, district court judgment against plaintiff is affirmed where: 1) the plain language of 29 U.S.C. sec. 215(a)(3) includes internal complaints as protected activity; and 2) unwritten, purely verbal complaints are not protected activity under the statute as the FLSA's use of the phrase "file any complaint" requires a plaintiff employee to submit some sort of writing.

Appellate Information

• Argued 04/02/2009
• Decided 06/29/2009
• Published 06/29/2009

Judges

• FLAUM, Circuit Judge., Before BAUER and FLAUM, Circuit Judges, and KAPALA, District Judge.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• James H. Kaster (argued), Minneapolis, MN, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Anthony J. Sievert, Whyte, Hirschboeck & Dudek S.C., Madison, WI, Thomas P. Godar (argued), Michael Best & Friedrich, Milwaukee, WI, for Defendant-Appellee.