Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs D/b/a Arkansas Veterans Home and Fayetteville Veterans Home, Appellant, V…

Summary

The court reversed the order certifying a class of approximately 150 nonnursing employees alleging that automatic meal-break deductions caused uncompensated overtime under the Arkansas Minimum Wage Act. It held that individual inquiries into whether employees worked through meal breaks and exceeded forty hours predominated over common issues, making class certification improper. Justice Wood concurred, and Justice Wynne, joined by Justices Danielson and Goodson, dissented because he viewed the case as materially indistinguishable from the companion decision and considered the majority’s distinction unpreserved.