ARROYO v. ASPEN CONSTRUCTION SERVICES, INC.

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 31, 2020
Docket2:19-cv-05317
StatusUnknown

This text of ARROYO v. ASPEN CONSTRUCTION SERVICES, INC. (ARROYO v. ASPEN CONSTRUCTION SERVICES, INC.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
ARROYO v. ASPEN CONSTRUCTION SERVICES, INC., (E.D. Pa. 2020).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA WILLIAM ARROYO, Plaintiff, CIVIL ACTION v. NO. 19-5317 ASPEN CONSTRUCTION SERVICES, INC., et al., Defendants. OPINION Slomsky, J. July 31, 2020

I. INTRODUCTION On November 12, 2019, William Arroyo (“Plaintiff”) filed a complaint on behalf of himself and those whom he believes are similarly situated to himself for unpaid overtime wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Plaintiff is a mason/laborer who was employed by Defendant Aspen Construction Services (“Aspen”) and Defendant Krzysztof Kaczmarczyk, President of Aspen. Before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion for Conditional Certification and Facilitation of Court-Authorized Notice. (Doc. No. 10.) In his Motion, Plaintiff requests that the Court conditionally certify as a class employees who he contends were entitled to overtime pay and approve a form of a notice to employees about the potential claim. (Id.) For reasons that follow, the Court will grant Plaintiff’s Motion for Conditional Certification. The Court also will grant Plaintiff’s request for a Court-Authorized Notice but with modifications as outlined below. II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND On November 12, 2019, Plaintiff filed this action against Defendants on behalf of himself and others seeking to obtain unpaid overtime wages. (Doc. No. 1 ¶ 16-20.) Defendant Aspen Construction Company does masonry work as one of their construction services and employs Defendant Krzysztof Kaczmarczyk as President. (Id. ¶ 5-7.) Plaintiff is a mason/laborer and was

employed full time by Defendants and paid on an hourly basis. (Id. ¶ 8, 14.) Plaintiff alleges that he and other similarly situated mason/laborers are owed unpaid wages for their overtime hours based on Defendants’ improper payment during the period leading up to the lawsuit. (Doc. No. 10 ¶ 4-7.) In his Complaint, Plaintiff alleges that Defendants failed to compensate him for overtime wages from March 2016 to October 2018. (Doc. No. 1 ¶ 15.) Plaintiff avers that during this time, Defendants knowingly made improper cash payments without including overtime pay or making required deductions. (Id. ¶¶ 12-13.) In his Declaration attached to his Motion, Plaintiff states that he and other masons/laborers regularly worked over forty hours in a seven-day period, and Defendants’ payment system either failed to properly compensate the overtime pay or was done

by cash payments to avoid the payment of taxes and overtime. (Doc. No. 10-4 at 2, Pl.’s Decl. ¶¶ 6, 8.) Plaintiff claims that his Declaration, along with his verified Complaint and the attached cash pay stubs he and other mason/laborers received from Defendants, are sufficient to show that he and the others are similarly situated to qualify for conditional class certification. (Doc. No. 1 ¶ 17.) Plaintiff also requests that the Court authorize notice of this lawsuit to be sent to employees who did not received overtime pay of their right to join in this lawsuit as putative plaintiffs. (Doc. No. 10 ¶ 14.) He asks that employees who worked for Defendants for three years prior to this action to be notifed. (Id.) Regarding the method of notice, Plaintiff asks that the Notice be mailed first class and posted at worksites. (Id. at 13.) He asks the Court to approve the content of the Notice as drafted by him. (Id. at 11.) Further, he requests authorization of a “follow-up notice” via email to putative plaintiffs, that the mailed and posted Notice be in English and Spanish, and seeks a provision that alerts putative plaintiffs of their right to be free from coercion should they

decide to enter into the action. (Id. at 12, 13.) He also asks the Court to require Defendants to produce contact information and employment data on the putative plaintiffs so they can be notified. (Id. at 14.) Finally, Plaintiff seeks to prohibit communications for any reason relating to this litigation between Defendant and any individual disclosed as a member of the putative class until such individual consents to opt in. (Id. at 16.) Defendants deny that Plaintiff was not paid for any overtime hours and that any other employees were subject to unlawful pay policies. (Doc. No. 14 at 5, ¶ 5.) Defendants claim that employees either self-reported their hours to Defendants or confirmed the hours they worked, and the payments to all employees were consistent with hours reported. (Doc. No. 14 at 131, Def.’s Aff. ¶¶ 2-3.) Defendants also claim that Plaintiff is not similarly situated to members of the

purported class. (Doc. No. 14 at 4, ¶ 4.) In support of this claim, Defendant Kaczmarczyk has submitted an Affidavit in which he states that Plaintiff made a request to be paid in cash for “personal reasons.” (Doc. No. 14 at 131, Def.’s Aff. ¶ 5.) Furthermore, Defendants contend that Plaintiff’s allegations in the Complaint and in his Declaration are merely conclusory and are insufficient to support a conditional certification of the class. (Doc. No. 14 at 13.) Defendants also request that, should conditional certification be approved, the proposed Notice be amended. (Id. at 16.) Specifically, Defendants claim that notice by mail, without any follow-up email, is sufficient, and that information identifying putative plaintiffs should be reasonably tailored to include only the information necessary within a two-year statute of limitations. (Id. at 16, 17.) Finally, Defendants argue that there are no grounds to prohibit Defendants from having contact with putative class members. (Id. at 18.) III. STANDARD OF REVIEW The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) requires employers to pay employees at one and one-half times the employees’ hourly wage for hours worked in excess of forty hours per week. 29

U.S.C. §§ 206-07. The statute permits a private right of action to be brought for covered employees if their employer violates the FLSA. Knepper v. Rite Aid Corp., 675 F.3d 249, 253 (3d Cir. 2012). Specifically, Section 216(b) of the FLSA allows plaintiffs to bring a collective action against an employer on behalf of themselves and similarly situated employees for FLSA violations, including unpaid overtime. 29 U.S.C. § 216(b). In a collective action, the plaintiffs must affirmatively opt-in to the lawsuit through written consent. Bellaspica v. PJPA, LLC, 3 F. Supp. 3d 257, 259 (E.D. Pa. 2014) (citing Barrios v. Suburban Disposal Inc., Civ. No. 2:12-cv-03663 (WJM), 2013 WL 6498086, at *2 (D.N.J. Dec. 11, 2013)). (“No employee shall be a party plaintiff to any such action unless he gives his consent in writing to become such a party and such consent is filed in the court in which such action is brought.”). District courts have discretion to authorize

notice to putative opt-in plaintiffs “by conditionally certifying the matter as a collective action.” Id. (citing Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc. v. Sperling, 493 U.S. 165, 170 (1989)). To show that conditional certification is appropriate, plaintiffs must make a “modest factual showing” that both they and the putative opt-in plaintiffs are similarly situated. Galt v. Eagleville Hosp., Civ.A. No. 15-6851, 238 F. Supp. 3d 733, 735 (E.D. Pa. Mar. 2, 2017) (citations omitted). There is a two-step process to determine whether opt-in plaintiffs are similarly situated under Section 216(b) of the FLSA. Viscomi v. Diner, Civ.A. No. 13-4720, 2016 WL 1255713, at *3 (E.D. Pa. Mar. 31, 2016) (citations omitted). First, a court conducts a “preliminary inquiry into whether the plaintiff and the proposed group are similarly situated.” Id.

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Bluebook (online)
ARROYO v. ASPEN CONSTRUCTION SERVICES, INC., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arroyo-v-aspen-construction-services-inc-paed-2020.