18th Annual Workplace Class Action Report - 2022 Edition

Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report: 2022 Edition 87 in the United States for FanSided as a Site Expert at any time within the past three years and who were classified as independent contractors." Id . at *3. In support of their motion, Plaintiffs offered three declarations of workers outlining their experiences working for Defendant, all which averred that they applied for the job of site expert, were hired by an Editorial Director, and had to sign an Expert Agreement, which set out the terms of their employment. The declarations explained the job duties as regularly watching sports games, drafting and editing numerous sports articles per week, managing other writers, monitoring search engine optimization data, and overseeing a social media account. The declarations also asserted that they were paid in monthly amounts far below the federal minimum wage, and that they worked with co-Site Experts for their respective sports pages who were also paid below minimum wage. Defendants argued that Plaintiffs were not similarly-situated to the members of the proposed collective action and that that individual issues would preclude conditional certification. The Court disagreed. It found that Plaintiffs had sufficiently demonstrated through their allegations and declarations that they were all subject to Defendant’s common policy or plan that was in violation of the FLSA. For these reasons, the Court ruled that Plaintiffs made the requisite factual showing required to justify conditional certification of a collective action. For these reasons, the Court granted Plaintiffs’ motion for conditional certification of a collective action. Chang, et al. v. Jenny JN Nails, Inc., Case No. 19-CV-2024 (D. Conn. Sept. 28, 2021). Plaintiff, a nail salon employee, filed a collective action alleging that Defendant failed to pay minimum wage and overtime compensation in violation of the FLSA. Plaintiff filed a motion for conditional certification of a collective action, and the Court granted the motion. Plaintiff sought conditional certification of a collective action consisting of all current and former non-exempt employees. Plaintiff submitted his own affidavit in support of the motion, which asserted that all nail, waxing, and massage workers worked 45 hour per week without being paid overtime compensation and were paid a flat compensation of $50 per day. Defendant did not file a response to the motion. In its independent analysis of the motion pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), the Court determined that Plaintiff made the requisite showing necessary to demonstrate the he was similarly-situated to the proposed collective action members. For these reasons, the Court granted Plaintiff’s motion for conditional certification of a collective action. Chavez, et al. v. Tribesmen Group, Inc., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 200307 (E.D.N.Y. Oct. 18, 2021). Plaintiff, a carpenter, filed a collective action alleging that Defendants 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. In support of his motion, Plaintiff offered his own declaration, in which he detailed both his own experiences, as well as his personal observations, interactions, and conversations with other current and former carpenters and manual workers employed by Defendants. Plaintiff contended that based on his personal observations, carpenters and manual laborers "were all paid in the same manner . . . meaning that they were all paid on an hourly basis at their regular rates for all hours that they worked in excess of 40 each week." Id . at *5. Plaintiff further asserted that all manual laborers and carpenters were paid at the regular rate instead of the overtime rate for all hours worked, and were therefore subject to a common policy to violate the FLSA. In his declaration, Plaintiff averred that he "worked with and observed at least eight other carpenters and manual workers who performed the same and/or similar duties as I did." Id . Plaintiff thereafter named the employees and stated that he personally observed that all these employees were paid in the same manner and worked similar hours to him. The Court held that Plaintiff had made the requisite showing necessary to demonstrate that he was similarly-situated to the members of the proposed collective action. For these reasons, the Court granted Plaintiffs’ motion for conditional certification of a collective action consisting of carpenters and manual laborers. Chen, et al. v. Dun Huang Corp., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 216989 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 8, 2021). Plaintiffs, two restaurant employees, filed a collective action alleging that Defendants engaged in a widespread and long- standing policy of underpaying employees’ statutory minimum wages and willfully not paying their employees with overtime wages in violation of the FLSA. Plaintiffs filed a motion for conditional certification of a collective action, which the Court granted in part. Plaintiffs sought conditional certification of a collective action consisting of all hourly employees at Defendants’ restaurant. In support of their motion, Plaintiffs both attested that they were paid a flat rate regardless of their weekly hours, that they were not paid overtime, and that Defendants misappropriated their tips. Id . at *11. Plaintiffs further declared that Defendants did not provide them with a fixed time to take meal breaks and required them to stay "on-call" during breaks, thereby leaving them only about 15