Labor & Employment

Having administered over 1,200 labor and employment settlements, Rust leads the industry in process improvements and innovation. By delivering superior project leadership, we minimize the often-overlooked, indirect costs of settlement administration.

Why Partner With Rust?

Responsiveness Drives Down Costs

Our experience with over 1,200 labor and employment settlements enables us to develop and offer progressive operations and systems. Our dedicated project management teams allow for continuity from case to case and create unmatched responsiveness to you and your clients. These advancements improve client satisfaction and allow you to spend less time and money resolving questions that arise during settlement administration.

Subject Matter Expertise Delivers Extraordinary Value

Our labor and employment project management team is strictly dedicated to managing settlement administration for cases involving matters such as wage-and-hour, FLSA, discrimination, and ERISA. They are specialists with an industry reputation for leveraging their unmatched experience to recognize cost saving opportunities and solve unforeseen complications.

 Data Security Lowers Your Risk

We understand the importance of protecting your data and lowering your risk profile at all times, which is why our internal data security practices meet or exceed today's exacting industry standards. Our enterprise-class data security measures are founded on standard business processes, including an employee screening program, ongoing employee security training, and a hardened production data center hosted at a Tier III network carrier, all designed to ensure data integrity and security.

Selected Case Experience

Customized Claim Forms

In this race discrimination lawsuit, Rust mailed more than 3,500 notices and placed published notice. Rust customized claim forms, which provided the class members several criteria to select the options that best fit their situations. Rust was engaged in the dispute resolution and ultimately paid the class members in conjunction with the parties’ agreement. At the parties’ request, Rust monitored all payments utilizing Return Receipt Requested.

FLSA Consent Filing

Rust mailed to more than 109,000 class members and received more than 4,500 opt-in forms in this FLSA settlement. Rust coordinated the filing of the FLSA consents with the Court through counsel by receipting, imaging, and forwarding weekly files containing all images and the corresponding database.

$1 Million Tax Savings

Rust mailed notice to the appropriate federal and state officials under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) as well as to more than 17,000 class members. Rust worked with the parties to develop a strategy to minimize the employer tax impact to the settlement, resulting in savings of over $1 million.

Simplified Claims Process

Prior to preliminary approval of this ERISA settlement, Rust consulted extensively with counsel to identify a timeline and scope of services that would satisfy the administration deliverables and the parties’ internal requirements. Rust worked closely with the parties’ in-house project management staff and counsel to set up a robust call center script, training, monitoring, testing, security, escalation procedures, and detailed statistics reporting. To assist with the distribution and tax reporting requirements unique to ERISA matters, Rust handled a portion of the case distribution awards and corresponding 1099-R tax reporting requirements.

Online Claims Filing

Rust developed an online claims filing process to accommodate the settling parties’ wish to reach out to as many class members as possible and allow them the opportunity to participate in the settlement. Although online filing is often used in class action administration, it is relatively new to the labor and employment practice area.

Customized Check Release System

The parties required that no checks should be allowed to clear if a class member altered the endorsement language, which included an FLSA release. Rust worked with a bank to utilize a system by which Rust could view the image of each check and endorsement before releasing it through the bank’s positive pay system on a daily basis. With no claim form utilized for this particular subclass, this was an integral part of administration to obtain and validate the class members’ releases.

Innovative, Cost-Efficient Approach

For this large wage-and-hour matter, Rust mailed notice to approximately 275,000 class members, translated notice into six languages, established a call center to support six languages with both Interactive Voice Response and live customer service representatives, traced and remailed undelivered notices, mailed checks and tax documents to 240,000 class members and tracked undeliverable payments. Despite the relatively large class size (for a wage-and-hour matter), Rust was able to control the administrative costs and reduce printing and postage costs by making translated notices available upon request and implementing Rust’s customized combination check-and-tax statement document.

Rust's Labor & Employment Practice Overview

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How Can We Help You?

Contact an expert before the settlement is complete to determine potential claim rates, settlement structures, and accurate cost estimates.

1.800.999.7940

Labor & Employment Team

David Holland
Eric Bishop
Mark Rapazzini
Elizabeth Graham-King
David Kaufman
Eric Parish
Jonathan Paul