Another employment class action brought on behalf of unpaid interns cleared a hurdle last week, when a federal judge in Manhattan conditionally certified a class of interns suing Viacom Inc. But plaintiffs lawyers behind a crush of intern cases still have to contend with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which is considering two appeals that could derail the litigation—or open the floodgates for even more claims.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman’s April 4 decision in O’Jeda v. Viacom conditionally certifies the case as a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The case, brought on behalf of all Viacom and MTV interns who held unpaid positions over the last three years, was filed two months after another judge ruled last June that unpaid interns at Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc. qualified as employees under the FLSA.
