Duane Morris Class Action Review - 2023 - Report - Page 226
Shoop, et al. v. Justiceworks Youthcare, Inc., 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96323 (W.D. Penn.
May 31, 2022), demonstrates how an employer can offer evidence to rebut the
allegations in the plaintiffs’ declarations and demonstrate the individuality inherent in the
plaintiffs’ claims. The plaintiffs, family resource specialists (FSRs) that provided in-home
social services working for the defendant, filed a class and collective action alleging that
the defendant failed to pay FSRs for time traveling between client sites and
documentation time in violation of the FLSA and Pennsylvania’s Minimum Wage Act.
The plaintiffs filed a motion for conditional certification, which the court denied. In
support of their motion for conditional certification, the plaintiffs provided three affidavits
stating that they were owed overtime pay because they were directed not to record
documentation of time or travel time while traveling to clients. Id. at *7-8. The plaintiffs
also testified in depositions that they typically worked more than 40 hours per week, but
were not compensated for overtime work, but they could not provide specific examples
of unpaid overtime hours and pointed to manager instructions rather than any specific
policy or practice regarding overtime pay at the defendant. Id. at *8-10. Conversely, in
opposing conditional certification, the defendant provided evidence that it had policies in
place for overtime pay, that the plaintiffs acknowledged those policies, and that it paid
employees for documented overtime hours. Id. at *9-10. The court held that the plaintiffs
failed to provide any evidence beyond their own self-serving statements to support their
claim that they were not compensated for documentation or travel time. The court
reasoned that the evidence offered did not satisfy the modest burden under 29 U.S.C. §
216(b) because it did not demonstrate a sufficient factual nexus between the plaintiffs’
claims or between the plaintiffs and the rest of the members of the collective action. As
a result, the court determined that there was not enough evidence to support conditional
certification of a collective action under the FLSA.
Sutter Valley Hospitals, et al. v. Ward, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126735 (E.D. Cal. July 15,
2022), demonstrates that the absence of a central policy can defeat conditional
certification. In that case the plaintiffs, surgical technicians employed by the defendant,
brought a putative class and collective action against the defendant, alleging that
defendant failed to pay them overtime and minimum wages in violation of the FLSA and
the California Labor Code (CLC). The court ordered discovery on class certification and
FLSA collective action certification, after which the plaintiffs filed a motion to certify the
class action under Rule 23 on their CLC claims and conditionally certify the collective
action under 29 U.S.C. § 216(b). In their declarations in support of certification, the
plaintiffs claimed that they often worked overtime and missed meal and rest breaks
because the defendant’s facilities were understaffed, and that the defendant
consistently denied their requests for overtime payment. Id. at *24-26. The plaintiffs also
alleged that when they did not clock-out and accrued overtime, management would alter
their punch times, and that the plaintiffs did not have proper meal breaks because they
were required to stay on-call in case they were needed, and their breaks were
frequently interrupted. Id. The court denied the plaintiffs’ motion. The court found that
the plaintiffs' declarations were too vague and conclusory to imply an unlawful practice
that could satisfy the commonality requirement for class certification under Rule 23 or
establish that members of the collective action were similarly-situated under § 216(b).
The declarations were nearly identical and contained much of the same language, with
only minor differences based on the declarants' facility of employment and details of
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Duane Morris Class Action Review – 2023
