Myers v. Marietta Memorial Hospital

201 F. Supp. 3d 884, 2016 WL 4376286, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109153
District Court, S.D. Ohio·Decided August 17, 2016·No. Case No. 2:15-CV-2956·Published·Cited by 59 cases

Opinion

OPINION & ORDER

ALGENON L. MARBLEY, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

This matter is before the Court on Plaintiffs’ Motion for Conditional Collective Action Certification, Expedited Discovery, and Issuance of Notice (Doc. 6); Motion for Reconsideration of the Magis[887]*887trate Judge’s Order denying granting Defendants’ motion to compel discovery (Doc. 36); and Motion to Stay Pending Resolution of the Motion for Reconsideration (Doc. 37). For the following reasons, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ Motion for Conditional Collective Action Certification under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”); DENIES as MOOT Plaintiffs’ Motion for Reconsideration; and DENIES as MOOT Plaintiffs’ Motion to Stay.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

Plaintiffs Lynnett Myers, Carol Butler, and Arva Lowther are former nurses at Defendant Marietta Memorial Hospital, which is operated by Memorial Health System. (Am. Compl., Doc. 33 at ¶¶ 6-8, 14.) Memorial Health System also operates Defendants Selby General Hospital and Marietta Health Care, Inc., and all of these entities function as joint employers of Memorial Health System’s employees and operate as a single integrated system. (Id. at ¶ 14.) Plaintiffs allege that Defendants’ policy of automatically deducting thirty minutes for a meal break for employees who do direct patient care violates the FLSA because employees are routinely prohibited from either taking an uninterrupted meal break or canceling the automatic deduction. (Doc. 6 at 6.) Plaintiffs ask the Court to certify conditionally the following class:

Ml of Defendants’ current and former hourly employees who were responsible for direct patient care and were subject to Defendants’ automatic meal deduction policy during the three years before this Complaint was filed up to the present.

(Doc. 6 at 4-6.)

Defendants’ personnel policy specifies the following:

1.2.1It is the general policy that employees are scheduled a 30 minute lunch break.
1.2.1.1 Employees who are unable to take an uninterrupted lunch break due to work load will be paid for that time....

1.2.3 Employees must have prior approval from Manager before working overtime or working their lunch break. (Memorial Health System Personnel Policy, Doc. 7-5.) The policy further provides: 6.0 Instructions — Lunch Periods

5.1 Scheduling of lunch periods is the responsibility of the Manager. A normal lunch period is 30 minutes.
5.2 The cafeteria is provided for employees to bring their lunch, as well as those who purchase it.
5.3 Employees are not permitted to eat in patient or public areas of the hospital.
5.4 Employees are not permitted to work their lunch period without permission of their Department Manager or Supervisor.
5.4.1 Employees who are unable to take an uninterrupted lunch break due to work load will be instructed to cancel their lunch deduction by their supervisor or may be released from work 30 minutes early.

(Memorial Health System Personnel Policy, Doc. 7-4 at 4.)

The three Plaintiffs have submitted virtually identical affidavits attesting that patient care employees did not clock in and out for meal breaks and that the hospital had a policy of automatically deducting thirty minutes from each shift for a meal period regardless of whether the employees actually took a break. (M'fidavit of Lynnett Myers, Doc. 7-1 at ¶ 6; Affidavit of Carol Butler, Doc. 7-2 at ¶ 6; Affidavit of Arva Lowther, Doc. 7-3 at ¶ 6.) Ml three women stated that they worked as nurses, each in multiple departments, for various time periods between 2004 and 2015. (Doc. [888]*8887-1 at ¶ 2; Doc. 7-2 at ¶2; Doc. 7-3 at ¶2.) They were paid hourly and often worked more than forty hours in a week. (Doc. 7-1 at ¶¶ 3, 5; Doc. 7-2 at ¶¶ 3, 5; Doc. 7-3 at ¶¶ 3, 5.) Each of them stated: “I do not recall a single day in the last three years when I was able to take a full 30-minute meal break free from all my job duties.” (Doc. 7-1 at ¶ 8; Doc. 7-2 at ¶ 8; Doc. 7-3 at ¶ 8.) They were never scheduled for a 30-minute uninterrupted meal break and their attempted breaks were regularly interrupted. (Doc. 7-1 at ¶ 9; Doc. 7-2 at ¶ 9; Doc. 7-3 at ¶ 9.) Finally, they stated that the automatic meal break deduction policy applies to “all employees responsible for direct patient care at Memorial Health System.” (Doc. 7-1 at ¶ 7; Doc. 7-2 at ¶ 7; Doc. 7-3 at ¶ 7.) They further averred that “[o]ther employees responsible for direct patient care are also interrupted or miss meal breaks, but are subject to the automatic deduction.” (Doc. 7-1 at ¶ 7; Doc. 7-2 at ¶7; Doc. 7-3 at ¶7.) They also stated that they were reprimanded when they attempted to cancel the automatic lunch deductions due to a missed break, and that they were discouraged from leaving the floor during any scheduled meal break. (Doc. 7-1 at ¶¶ 7-8; Doc. 7-2 at ¶¶7-8; Doc. 7-3 at ¶¶7-8.) Finally, they stated that “[mjanagers were aware that nurses were required to work or were interrupted during their meal breaks, and they did not ensure that.. .nurses were completely relieved of them work duties during their uncompensated ‘meal periods.’ ” (Doc. 7-1 at ¶ 12; Doc. 7-2 at ¶ 12; Doc. 7-3 at ¶ 12.)

The hospital has submitted affidavits from 29 employees who work in direct patient care. (Doc. 17-2.) The affidavits, which are identical, each contain the affi-ant’s name, job title, and dates of employment, as well as the following:

3. I have been informed that there is a lawsuit pending about allegations of Hospital employees required to work without compensation. I understand that I may be eligible to participate in this lawsuit and may, if such claims are proven, be entitled to monetary compensation. Notwithstanding, I make this declaration on a voluntary basis.
4. For my entire tenure as a Hospital employee, I have been properly paid for every day that I have worked. I have never performed work for which I have not been compensated.
5. I am unaware of any co-workers performing work for which they have not been compensated.

(Id.) Additionally, some, but not all, of the affidavits include the following statement:

6. Regarding meal breaks, I understand that if my meal break is interrupted for work I may either inform my supervisor or manually remove the break, so that I am paid for the entire break period, which is what I have done if my meal break was interrupted.

(Id.)

B. Procedural History

Plaintiffs commenced this collective and class action against Defendants Marietta Memorial Hospital, Marietta Health Care, Inc., and Selby General Hospital on October 29, 2015. (Doc. 1.) They have brought causes of action under the FLSA as well as the Ohio Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act (“OMFWSA”), Ohio Rev. Code § 4111.01 et seq.1 On January 7, 2016, Plaintiffs moved for conditional collective action certification and also asked for expedited discovery and issuance of notice to the proposed class. (Doc.

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Myers v. Marietta Memorial Hospital, 201 F. Supp. 3d 884, 2016 WL 4376286, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109153 (S.D. Ohio 2016).

201 F. Supp. 3d 884 (Myers v. Marietta Memorial Hospital) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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