Why Partner With Rust?
Experienced Team Dedicated to Labor & Employment
No firm can match Rust’s experience administering 750 labor and employment settlements and more than 150 opt-in/opt-out mailings. Our dedicated labor and employment team has nearly 100 years of combined experience managing settlement administration for some of the largest and most high-profile cases involving matters such as wage-and-hour, discrimination, The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), along with pre-settlement opt-in / opt-out mailings. Clients receive continuity from case to case with dedicated project managers.
Client-Focused, Problem-Solving Approach
We deliver innovative administrative solutions to labor and employment matters. For example, Rust saved a client over $1 million by minimizing employer tax impact. In another case, Rust minimized administrative, printing and postage costs by making translated notices available upon request and implementing a customized combination check-and-tax statement document.
We Protect Your Sensitive Information
Our internal data and system security practices meet or exceed today's exacting industry standards. We have received system accreditation under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and undergo an annual SAS70 Type II audit of our data security and information technology controls designed to demonstrate our substantial level of data and system 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.