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Last week, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals barred two employees from New York and Maryland from joining a putative wage-and-hour collective action in Pennsylvania. The action was filed by a former FedEx security specialist, Christa Fischer, who alleges that FedEx misclassified her and other security specialists as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (“FLSA”) overtime rule and underpaid them.

In Fischer v. Fed. Express Corp., out-of-state former employees from Maryland and New York submitted notices of consent, seeking to join Fischer’s suit. Both former employees worked for FedEx in their home states but—other than FedEx’s allegedly uniform nationwide unlawful employment practices—have no connection to Pennsylvania, where the collective action is pending. The district court did not allow these opt-in plaintiffs to join the suit, applying the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Ct. and reasoning that the district court lacked specific personal jurisdiction over FedEx with respect to their claims. “Because the FLSA does not authorize nationwide service of process, ‘service in this case is only effective to the extent that Pennsylvania state courts may.’” The plaintiffs appealed that decision, arguing that the district court erred in applying Bristol-Myers to the action because it was filed in federal court.

On interlocutory appeal, the Third Circuit held that “where the basis of personal jurisdiction in an FLSA collective action in a federal court is specific personal jurisdiction established by serving process,” opt-in plaintiffs must establish that their “claim arises out of or relates to the defendant’s minimum contacts with the forum state.”

This decision limits employees’ ability to bring nationwide wage-and-hour collective actions in courts that do not have general personal jurisdiction over the employer, and is in line with decisions from the Sixth and Eighth Circuit Courts of Appeals. The First Circuit, however, disagreed earlier this year, holding that while initial plaintiffs’ claims must arise out of or relate to the defendant’s minimum contacts with the forum state, opt-in plaintiffs’ claims need only arise out of or relate to a defendant’s minimum contacts with the entire nation.

Although a victory for employers, we anticipate that we will continue to see nationwide or multi-state FLSA collective actions filed in courts of general jurisdiction, i.e., in venues where the employer is incorporated or has its principal place of business.