An employee who frequently complained about his work hours and lack of overtime pay, then subsequently told to accept his working conditions without complaining, resign, or be terminated has stated a claim for constructive discharge in retaliation for asserting his Fair Labor Standards Act right to overtime pay, a federal district court rules.

The Court says that it does not find that the overtime the employee worked and the lack of overtime pay for those hours to be “objectively intolerable.” However, the threat to terminate him if he did continue to assert his right to FLSA overtime pay “would be objectively intolerable to a reasonable person,” the Court observes, and that a reasonable person in the worker’s position would have felt compelled to resign. Ellis v. Yum! Brands, Inc.