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

Summary

The court held that the circuit court abused its discretion by certifying a class of approximately 150 nonnursing employees alleging unpaid overtime from automatic meal-break deductions. Although the deduction policy was common to the proposed class, determining whether each employee worked through a meal break and consequently exceeded forty hours required individualized inquiries that predominated over common issues. The court reversed and remanded with instructions to decertify the class. Justice Wynne, dissenting, would have affirmed because the varied job duties were not preserved as a basis for reversal and the common meal-deduction policy predominated; Justice Wood, concurring, agreed with the result but would not have distinguished the companion decision.