18th Annual Workplace Class Action Report - 2022 Edition

Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report: 2022 Edition 133 conditional certification, Plaintiffs offered 10 affidavits from employees engaged in various jobs at the three mines, all of whom asserted the existence of a company policy requiring employees to "be ready for work 15 minutes before [the] scheduled start time" and the extensive time spent "donning and doffing" their mining gear. Id . at *15. The Court found that Plaintiffs’ evidence was sufficient to show that they were similarly-situated to the members of the proposed collective action. Plaintiffs further asserted that they were not paid overtime compensation and that Defendant failed to include non-discretionary bonuses in salary calculations. Defendant argued the members of the proposed collective action were not similarly-situated because the three mines had “individualized policies handling overtime, pay discrepancies, and meal breaks, so each Plaintiff’s claims would be different.” Id . at *17-18. However, the Court found that the claims were sufficiently similar to warrant collective action treatment. The Court reasoned that any merits determinations would be addressed following discovery at the decertification stage. For these reasons, the Court granted Plaintiffs’ motion for conditional certification of a collective action. Braun, et al. v. Coulter Ventures, LLC, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 135564 (S.D. Ohio July 21, 2021). Plaintiffs, a group of non-exempt hourly warehouse employees, 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. Plaintiffs contended that Defendant required hourly employees to clock-in using a time clock, but that Defendant only paid for scheduled shift time, which led to Plaintiffs being underpaid. Plaintiffs sought conditional certification of a collective action consisting of all current or former non- exempt employees in the warehouse and/or manufacturing divisions and employed during the past three years who were paid from the beginning of their shift until the end of their shift despite being clocked-in more than seven minutes prior to their shift and/or remaining clocked-in more than seven minutes after their scheduled shift end time. Id . at *10. In support of their motion, Plaintiffs offered seven declarations in which they attested that they and the putative opt-in Plaintiffs shared a common experience of having to complete integral, indispensable, and unpaid work before and after scheduled shifts. Defendant contended that while the membership of the proposed collective action included employees from the Rogue Fitness’s Customer Service division, Plaintiffs themselves only worked in the Warehouse and Assembly divisions, and therefore they did not perform any of the pre-shift or post-shift tasks that were performed by employees in the Customer Service division, nor did they have personal knowledge of any tasks performed. Id . at *12. The Court concluded that based on the evidence presented by Plaintiffs, they met the burden necessary to demonstrate that conditional collective action certification was appropriate. Accordingly, the Court granted Plaintiffs’ motion for conditional certification of a collective action. Brewer, et al. v. Alliance Coal, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 134885 (E.D. Ky. July 20, 2021). Plaintiff, a coal mining employee, filed a collective action alleging that Defendants failed to pay all wages due in violation of the FLSA. Plaintiff filed a motion for conditional certification of a collective action, which the Court granted. Plaintiff contended that Defendants: (i) required coal mining employees to arrive at work prior to their scheduled shifts but did not pay employees for off-the-clock work, including donning their uniforms and protective equipment; (ii) failed to pay for time spent working after the end of their shifts, including time spent doffing their protective equipment; and (iii) failed to include bonus compensation in overtime pay calculations. Plaintiff sought conditional certification of a collective action consisting of all coal miners from May 26, 2017 to the present. Id . at *3. In support of his motion, Plaintiff offered his own declaration and the declarations of four other opt-in Plaintiffs who worked in various coal mining positions. The declarations all averred that Defendants required them to be dressed and ready to work prior to the start of their shifts with their uniforms and protective equipment donned and any tools needed for the day collected, but they were not paid until the start of their shift. Id . at *6. Plaintiff and the opt-in Plaintiffs also asserted that they were not paid for time spent doffing their uniforms and protective equipment and returning their tools after emerging from the mine at the end of their scheduled shifts. Finally, two of declarations asserted that Defendant had a policy of paying bonuses that were not included in overtime pay calculations. The Court held that based on the allegations in the complaint and averments in the supporting declarations, Plaintiff made the requisite showing for purposes of conditional certification that the proposed collective action members were similarly-situated by way of Defendants’ common policies. Defendants raised several arguments in opposition, and the Court rejected all of them as addressing the merits of Plaintiffs’ claim, which it declined to address at this stage of conditional certification. For these reasons, the Court granted Plaintiff’s motion for conditional certification of a collective action.