On March 1, 2013, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an opinion in Lundy v. Catholic Health System of Long Island Inc., ruling that a plaintiff must sufficiently allege 40 hours of work in a particular workweek as well as some unpaid time in excess of 40 hours to sustain an FLSA overtime claim. The case, which presented an issue of first impression for the Second Circuit, clarifies the degree of specificity needed to state an overtime claim under FLSA.

The plaintiffs, a group of three health care employees, alleged that Catholic Health System of Long Island Inc. failed to compensate them adequately for time worked during meal breaks, before and after scheduled shifts and during required training sessions as required by the FLSA, in addition to other state and federal claims. The district court dismissed the plaintiffs' FLSA overtime claims, finding that, among other deficiencies, none of the plaintiffs alleged that their compensable time exceeded 40 hours in any particular week.

On appeal, the Second Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling as to the FLSA claim, concluding that, in order to state a plausible FLSA overtime claim, a plaintiff must sufficiently allege:

The court noted that a determination of whether a plausible claim has been pled under this standard is a context-specific task, though plaintiffs must make factual allegations sufficient to establish more than a speculative right to relief.

Reviewing the plaintiffs' complaint, the Second Circuit concluded that the plaintiffs failed to allege a single specific workweek in which any of them worked over 40 hours without overtime compensation. It was undisputed that one of the three plaintiffs never worked more than 40 hours in a week. The Second Circuit found the allegations of the other two plaintiffs, who alleged that they were typically scheduled to work 37.5 hours per week and 30 hours per week, insufficient on the grounds that:

The decision provides helpful clarification to both employers and employees regarding the specificity of the allegations necessary to sustain an FLSA overtime claim in the Second Circuit, indicating that an overtime claim that fails to identify at least some uncompensated time in excess of 40 hours will be found inadequate even where allegations allow the theoretical possibility that unpaid overtime occurred.