Employment Litigation · Primary-source case analysis

Kasten: The FLSA Protects Clear Oral Complaints

By Aneeta Mishra and Timothy Chan

Published May 7, 2026 · Updated October 17, 2026

Decision: Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., 563 U.S. 1 (2011).

Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics was decided by the Supreme Court on March 22, 2011. It holds that the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) protection for filing a complaint can include a clear oral complaint; a writing is not always required.

The employee objected to timeclock placement

Kasten alleged that he repeatedly told supervisors and human-resources personnel that timeclocks prevented workers from receiving credit for time spent putting on and taking off required protective gear. He claimed the company discharged him because of those oral objections.

Oral complaints can be filed

The Court concluded that statutory text, history, enforcement practice, and the FLSA’s purpose support coverage of oral complaints. Limiting protection to writing would disadvantage workers with limited literacy and impede workplace-level resolution.

Fair notice remains essential

A communication must be sufficiently clear and detailed for a reasonable employer to understand it as an assertion of statutory rights and a call for protection. Casual remarks or indistinct grumbling do not automatically become protected complaints.

The case was remanded

The Court resolved oral-versus-written coverage but did not decide the employer’s separate argument that only complaints to the government were protected. That issue had not been raised in the certiorari briefing, and the Court found it unnecessary to decide the oral-versus-written question. Lower courts were left to apply the fair-notice standard to the record.

Key takeaways

• Train supervisors to recognize clear oral wage complaints.
• Document the words, audience, timing, and requested response.
• Separate protected complaints from unrelated workplace disagreements.
• Evaluate causation using the complete disciplinary timeline.