COVID-19 Related Workplace Litigation Picks Up Steam

For the past few months, the Barnes & Thornburg Wage & Hour Practice Group has been tracking and cataloging workplace litigation related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic effects. Our COVID-19 Related Workplace Litigation Tracker is updated twice each week. We have seen a number of interesting trends in the last two months, including the proliferation of COVID-19 retaliation and discrimination claims, and the relative dearth of WARN Act cases (at least so far). But one of the more interesting trends is that the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have acted as an accelerant for run-of-the-mill wage and hour cases. You will see on our tracker a number of cases where wage and hour claims appear to be “tacked on” to a complaint alleging facts largely related to the COVID-19 pandemic.