California Judge Certifies Class of Kaiser Traveling Nurses

U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero certified a class of Kaiser Foundation traveling nurses after the caregivers alleged they were shorted on overtime pay, denied required meal breaks and rest periods, etc. The judge granted class certification after the nurses raised valid issues about broad policies that were applicable to all class members.

The judge granted a bid to certify a class of R.N.’s and licensed practical nurses who were all employed by AMN Healthcare Inc. The health care staffing contractor staffed Kaiser Foundation hospitals with nurses in California. The suit included numerous allegations of wage and hour violations of California Labor Law.

The judge concluded that the plaintiffs met the requirements for both commonality and predominance prior to granting class certification. Judge Spero said the nurses’ theories that the defendants in the case discouraged overtime and didn’t adequately prevent underreporting raised a number of common issues that were susceptible to common proof.

In reaching this conclusion, Judge Spero rejected a number of arguments presented by Kaiser, the defendant in the case, who was arguing against class certification: evidence of minor variations in how the company policies were implemented in various facilities and that potentially removed the commonality of issues regarding the nurses’ overtime payment.

When there is evidence of a common business policy that is applicable to all members of a class with concerns to the payment of overtime, and all the class members can be said to share the same core duties that tend to routinely lead to unscheduled overtime, the judge argued that some class members who did not find themselves working unscheduled overtime or who were provided adequate compensation for the overtime hours was not sufficient to defeat predominance. Based on this logic, the court found that the common issues predominate over individualized inquiries in consideration of the overtime claims being presented by the plaintiffs.

The Kaiser nurses’ suit was removed to federal court in early 2016. The original lawsuit alleged that the Defendant suppressed overtime by advising their traveling nurses that it wasn’t permitted and that they further discouraged overtime by keeping an over-difficult overtime approval process in place. The plaintiffs also alleged that they were not provided with the required meal breaks and rest periods. This was accomplished through a number of different policies the company implemented.

In addition to AMN Healthcare, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Southern California Permanente Medical Group Inc. and the Permanente Medical Group Inc. were also named as defendants. All are Kaiser entities.

If you have questions regarding proper meal breaks and rest periods or if you need to find out what the legal requirements are for overtime pay, please get in touch with one of the experienced California employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP.

Proposed Class Action Against Sally’s Beauty Supply

An ex-Sally Beauty Supply LLC employee, Rosie Nance, filed a proposed class action against the company in Florida federal court. Nance claims she was not provided with fair overtime pay despite regularly working more than 40 hours per week, including bank deposits conducted on her lunch breaks.

Nance filed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) lawsuit in July including allegations that from April 2015 through February 2018, she was not compensated by Sally Beauty Supply at the state-mandated time and a half for extra hours she worked over 40 per week. She filed suit on behalf of herself and other nonexempt employees at the company in similar positions.

Nance was employed by Sally Beauty Supply from February 2006 through February 2018. According to the filed complaint, she was employed to provide customer service at retail outlets.

Nance claims in the complaint that while she was required to perform off the clock work by making bank deposits on behalf of the company during her lunch breaks, she was not provided payment as required by labor law. In the suit she specifically stated that the work was “directly essential” to the company and its successful business practices.

Additional claims were lodged by Nance in the complaint, including: the company failed to maintain proper time records, and the company failed to apprise her of her rights under FLSA.

Nance filed suit to seek back overtime pay at the standard rate as required by law, and additional damages and attorneys’ fees as necessary. Sally Beauty Supply is not the only national retailer facing claims of off the clock work due to lunch break bank deposits. T-Mobile, Dollar Tree, and Children’s Place Retail Stores Inc. are all facing similar claims.

If you have questions regarding what constitutes off-the-clock work or if you feel you aren’t being paid overtime as required by law, please get in touch with one of the California employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP.

Exotic Dancers Wage Row Results in $8.5M Deal

A number of former Spearmint Rhino exotic dancers urged a California federal judge to give final approval to a $8.5 million deal in order to settle their suit alleging that the chain of nightclubs limited their compensation to tips.  Lead plaintiffs in the case, Lauren Byrne, Bambie Bedford, and Jennifer Disla, claimed that the nightclub didn’t pay them overtime wages, provide them with minimum wage or provide them with required meal and rest breaks during their time dancing in the establishment.

Final settlement approval in the class and collective action would resolve the allegations of tip misappropriation. Out of 8,000 class members, 50 chose to opt out and only a few others in the group objected to the settlement proposed as a resolution to the matter.

Dancers included in the suit were located throughout the country. Counsel for the class spoke to them regarding the allegations and disputed facts of the case and considered information pertaining to the case provided by defendants’ counsel including business structure, agreements in place, locations of the club, number of clubs involved in the case, number of dancers and other entertainers working at the various locations, applicable statute of limitations, and the number of days each dancer worked at the establishments. All this research and analyses was completed prior to engaging in settlement discussions.

According to the motion, the final approval of the proposed settlement would end litigation over all claims against the Spearmint Rhino nightclubs brought by the plaintiffs in regard to state wage and hour law violations, and the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). According to the dancers, the deal amount specified was $8.5 million, but could increase to $11 million if certain conditions were met.

A group of exotic dancers currently working the defendants’ clubs came forward the same day that the final settlement approval was requested to ask the court to find that they are not employees. They stated that they could have chosen to work as “employees,” but did not because they wanted to avoid the level of control the nightclubs had over actual employees. They argued that the plaintiffs are all former entertainers who no longer need to consider this aspect of the issue. They have no further interest in preserving their choice to perform without being subject to the rules, regulation, control and scrutiny of an employee.

If you have questions about wage and hour violations or if you are not being paid overtime you are due, please get in touch with one of the experienced California employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP.

Does Johnson & Johnson Pay Proper Wages to their Employees?

In recent news out of Los Angeles, an Orange County woman sued Johnson & Johnson (U.S. District Court for the Central District of California case number 8:17-cv-01608). The California woman, Nhung B. Tran, filed a wage and hour lawsuit on September 15th, 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California listing Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc. as the Defendant in the case. Tran claims that Johnson & Johnson failed to pay fair wages, which means they are in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In her complaint, Tran made allegations that she worked for 12 years in the Johnson & Johnson Quality Assurance department where she handled records management. According to Tran she worked more than 40 hours per week, but was not paid overtime wages. Tran alleges that the defendants failed to provide her with any overtime compensation for the hours she worked for the company that exceeded the 40 hours per week that is in violation of FLSA.

Definitions to Know:

Overtime: According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), overtime means time worked beyond a prescribed threshold. The threshold prescribed by the FLSA defines the normal work period as a workweek of 7 consecutive days. The normal FLSA regulated overtime threshold is 40 hours per workweek. Some jobs may be governed by a different FLSA overtime threshold.

Allegation: In the legal world, an allegation is a formal claim against another individual, group or institution.

Overtime Compensation: Unless an employee is exempt, the FLSA requires that they be provided with overtime pay for hours worked above and beyond those as identified as “normal.” Overtime pay is required to be at a rate not less than time and one-half of the employee’s regular rate of pay. According to FLSA, there is no limit to the number of hours an employee aged 16+ can work in any workweek as long as they are being paid in accordance to overtime requirements.

Tran wishes to obtain a trial by jury as well as economic damages, general damages, punitive damages, statutory damages, legal fees, double damages, and any other relief that the court deems appropriate in the situation once they consider the facts.

If you have questions about the Fair Labor Standards Act or overtime compensation, please get in touch with one of the experienced California employment law attorneys at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik.