A federal judge has declined to consider the terms of a collective bargaining agreement in a $5 million class action, leaving Boston University to defend itself against claims that it failed to pay its salaried lecturers on a weekly or biweekly basis as required by Massachusetts law.
On May 23, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns of the District of Massachusetts denied the Trustees of Boston University’s motion to dismiss a wage dispute brought by a salaried Rhode Island-based lecturer, Lydia Curtin-Wilding, who claims she never elected to be paid monthly. The plaintiff claims that under the Massachusetts Wage Act, BU was required to pay Curtin-Wilding and other lecturers at least twice a month, but the university was approximately nine days late for the first half of the month from February 2022 to August 2023. Boston University argued that the plaintiff didn’t have standing under Massachusetts law, and that she was asking for “an exorbitant sum” for an “asserted technical violation,” which was exempt under federal labor laws.