18th Annual Workplace Class Action Report - 2022 Edition

Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report: 2022 Edition 101 offices involved were different in their compensation practices, nor was there any basis to infer that if the policies resulted in the under-reporting or failure to report hours in Chicago, New York, and Maryland, that the same pressures and the same under-reporting did not also occur elsewhere. Id . at *19. For these reasons, the Court granted Plaintiffs’ motion for conditional certification of a collective action. Modise, et al. v. Careone Health Services, LLC, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146639 (D. Conn. Aug. 5, 2021). Plaintiffs, a group of live-in home health aides (“HHA”) or personal care assistants (“PCA”), brought a collective action alleging that Defendant failed to pay overtime compensation and failed to maintain accurate records of Plaintiffs’ work time in violation of the FLSA and the Connecticut Minimum Wage Act (“CMWA”). Plaintiffs filed a motion for conditional certification of a collective action, which the Court granted in part and denied in part. Plaintiffs sought conditional certification of a collective action consisting of all home health aides and personal care assistants who worked for Defendants in Connecticut from January 13, 2017 to present. Plaintiffs contended that they were entitled to overtime compensation for over 40 hours of work, eight hours of sleep of which five hours must be uninterrupted, and three one-hour meal breaks per day. Plaintiffs alleged that they regularly worked 51 hours of overtime for regular hourly compensation rates and were unable to maintain at least five hours of uninterrupted sleep per night. Plaintiffs alleged that Defendants failed to maintain accurate records reflecting interruptions to workers’ sleep and meal breaks, and did not pay Plaintiffs the overtime premium rate for overtime hours worked. Plaintiffs alleged that Defendants were aware of these interruptions but did not record them on timesheets. Plaintiffs contended that Defendants’ practice of designating them and other home health aides and personal care assistants as exempt from overtime requirements was a violation of the FLSA. Defendants opposed the motion on the grounds that no FLSA violations had occurred. The Court granted the motion for conditional certification in part. It found that Plaintiffs established facts supporting that others employed as home health aides by Defendants were paid regular hourly wages for overtime hours worked and were thus similarly-situated. However, the Court determined that Plaintiffs had not established that the members of the proposed collective action were similarly-situated in regularly interrupted uncompensated breaks. The Court found that a lack of similar experience in sleep or meal interruption for each HHA or PCA workers precluded conditional certification for Plaintiffs under these claims. The Court thereby granted in part and denied in part Plaintiffs’ motion for conditional certification of a collective action. Mota, et al. v. Inter Connection Electric, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140912 (S.D.N.Y. July 28, 2021). Plaintiff, an electrician, filed a collective action alleging that Defendant failed to pay overtime compensation in violation of the FLSA. Plaintiff filed a motion for conditional certification of a collective action, which the Court granted. Plaintiff sought conditional certification of a collective action consisting of former and current employees who performed electrical work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and were not paid prevailing wages for electricians. In support of his motion, Plaintiff offered his own declaration and declarations of three opt-in Plaintiffs, all of which identified other employees who were similarly-situated to Plaintiff in that they performed electrical work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and did not receive prevailing wages. Id . at *3. The Court determined that Plaintiff’s declarations made the requisite showing necessary to establish that he was similarly-situated to members of the proposed collective action for purposes of conditional certification. For these reasons, the Court granted conditional certification of a collective action consisting of current and former electrical workers, who while performing work for Defendant at the Brooklyn Navy Yard from September 14, 2014 to present, were not paid at least one and one-half times the prevailing wage rate for electricians for all hours over 40 that they worked in a workweek. Nyarko, et al. v. M&A Projects Restoration Inc., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 173597 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 13, 2021). Plaintiffs, a group of construction workers, filed a collective action alleging that Defendant failed to pay them overtime compensation in violation of the FLSA. Plaintiffs filed a motion for conditional certification of a collective action, which the Court granted in part. Plaintiffs alleged that if they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek, Defendant would issue them a second paycheck with straight time pay for the overtime hours, rather than the statutorily required time and a half pay. Plaintiff sought conditional certification of a collective action consisting of all hourly paid workers. Plaintiffs offered three declarations in support of their motion, which all averred that they worked as construction workers or helpers, were compensated for overtime hours at their straight time rate, and were paid the additional straight time compensation in separate checks. Plaintiffs also all asserted that construction workers were treated in the same way. The Court noted that the allegations and the declarations all discussed only construction worker employees, and therefore it declined to conditionally certify a collective