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A report shows 44-percent hike in wage-and-hour lawsuits in 2009. With more employees out of work and uncertain of their future, that number may increase, experts say. HR needs to audit company practices -- especially in light of some of the changing job responsibilities brought on by the recession -- to pre-empt a class-action lawsuit against their organizations.

Citing it as a national trend that is likely to continue through 2010, employment law firm Seyfarth Shaw released its sixth annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report showing a 44-percent increase in 2009 in non-government wage-and-hour settlements, compared to 2008.

The combined value of the top 10 wage-and-hour settlements pursued in federal court under the Fair Labor Standards Act went from $253 million in 2008 to $364 million in 2009 -- a figure that "outnumbered all other types of private class-actions in employment-related cases," according to the report.

Since the firm began publishing the report six years ago, "both the number of cases filed and the financial exposure that they pose to companies has increased exponentially," says J. Stephen Poor, chair and managing partner of Chicago-based Seyfarth Shaw.

"As plaintiffs' attorneys bring increasingly sophisticated litigation against employers that combine claims under multiple statutes, the financial exposure is only going to become greater for businesses," he says.

Michael J. Gray, labor and employment attorney in the Chicago office of Jones Day, describes the class-action, wage-and-hour phenomenon as a continual climb "industry-by-industry, state-by-state."

"It started in California and moved to New York," says Gray. "Now, a staggering number of cases are being filed in Florida every day. It's gotten to the point that some of the federal courts in Florida have created their own local rules for dealing with them."

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Written by  By Kristen B. Frasch  for HREOnline