Pereira v. Foot Locker, Inc.

261 F.R.D. 60, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84022, 2009 WL 2951028
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 11, 2009
DocketCivil Action No. 07-cv-2157
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 261 F.R.D. 60 (Pereira v. Foot Locker, 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
Pereira v. Foot Locker, Inc., 261 F.R.D. 60, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84022, 2009 WL 2951028 (E.D. Pa. 2009).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM and ORDER

JOYNER, District Judge.

Before this Court are Plaintiffs Motion for Conditional Collective Certification pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 216(b) (Doc. No. 53), Plaintiff’s Motion for Class Action Certification pursuant to Fed. R.C.P. 23 (Doc. No. 50), Defendant’s Response in Opposition (Doe. No. 66), Plaintiffs Reply (Doe. No. 85), Defendant’s Surreply (Doe. No. 89), Plaintiffs Rebuttal Memorandum (Doc. No. 93), Plaintiffs Notice of Filing Supplemental Evidence (Doe. No. 100) and Defendant’s Response to Plaintiffs Second Notice of Filing Supplemental Evidence (Doc. No. 103).

Background

Plaintiff filed this action in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on May 25, 2007, alleging that Defendant Foot Locker,1 had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. § 201, et seq., the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act of 1968 (“PMWA”), as amended 43 Pa.C.S.C. § 333.101, et seq., and the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Act (“PWPCA”), 43 Pa.C.S.A. § 260.1, et seq., by not compensating workers for hours worked and not compensating for overtime. Generally, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant has a central policy of strictly enforcing restricted hours budgets that are not adequate to do the work of the store. Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that time spent pre-opening and post-closing, doing necessary work for the maintenance of the store, is not compensated and employees are required to work off-the-clock or have their time shaved in order to do this work. Plaintiff alleges that Defendants enforced the policy by directly tying the compensation of the store managers to meeting the unrealistic labor budget set by Foot Locker corporate and by punishing managers for “going over” the insufficient budget. Defendant vigorously denies the allegations.

Plaintiff Pereira formerly worked at numerous Foot Locker stores under four different managers. In his declaration, he attests that he was not compensated for pre-opening and post-closing work because his manager was forced to stay within his restricted labor budget. Plaintiffs Complaint alleges both federal and state violations as follows: Count I: Failure to pay Plaintiff and each member of the nationwide class for all hours worked and failure to pay overtime compensation in violation of FLSA, 29 U.S.C. §§ 206, 207; Count II: Failure to compensate Plaintiff and each member of the nationwide class for all time worked off-the-clock and for shaved time, at a rate at least equal to the federal minimum wage; Count III: Failure to pay Plaintiff and each member of the Pennsylvania class for all of hours worked in violation of 43 P.S. § 333.104(a); Count IV: Failure to [62]*62pay overtime to Plaintiff and each member of the Pennsylvania class in violation of 43 P.S. § 333.104() and 34 Pa.Code § 231.41; Count V: Failure to pay Plaintiff and all members of the Pennsylvania class all wages due to them as required by Pennsylvania Labor Laws, in violation of 43 P.S. § 260.3 and 43 P.S. § 260.5. Plaintiff has pled jurisdiction for the FLSA claims under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and under 28 U.S.C. § 1367 for the state law claims. Three additional Plaintiffs have filed declarations opting-in to the action.

Discovery has been active in the case and Plaintiff has provided the Court with declarations, time sheets, sales records, internal complaints, internal documents and depositions. In its defense, Foot Locker has challenged Plaintiffs evidence with numerous declarations of putative plaintiffs who claim never to have worked off-the-clock or had their time shaved, as well as evidence of company policies, records of discipline, and time sheet evidence refuting that of the Plaintiff. The present Motions for Conditional Collective Certification and Class Action Certification were filed in September 2008, and parties have continued to submit briefs, declarations and evidence in the matter, with and without the Court’s leave, through July 20, 2009.

Standard

Conditional Collective Certification

As Plaintiff has moved for conditional collective certification under FLSA, it is this Court’s “managerial responsibility to oversee the joinder of additional parties to assure that the task is accomplished in an efficient and proper way.” Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc. v. Sperling, 493 U.S. 165, 170-171, 110 S.Ct. 482, 107 L.Ed.2d 480 (1989). “The Court has the power to authorize notice in collective actions in order to set time limits for various pretrial steps and to avoid a multiplicity of duplicative suits.” Lugo v. Farmer’s Pride, No. 07-0749, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17565, at *6-7, 2008 WL 638237, at *2 (E.D.Pa. March 7, 2008) (citing Hoffmann-LaRoche, 493 U.S. at 171-173, 110 S.Ct. 482). Actions brought under the FLSA are collective actions, and “[n]o 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.” 29 U.S.C. § 216(b).

Pursuant to the FLSA, there are two requirements for potential plaintiffs to be included in the collective action: plaintiffs must (1) be “similarly situated” and (2) give written consent. 29 U.S.C. § 216(b). Courts engage in a two-step inquiry to determine whether class members are similarly situated for purposes of Section 216(b) of the FLSA. Harris v. Healthcare Servs. Group, Inc., No. 06-2903, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55221, at *6, 2007 WL 2221411, at *2 (E.D.Pa. July 31, 2007) (citations omitted). The first step is assessed early in the litigation process when there is minimal evidence and places a relatively light burden on plaintiffs to show that potential opt-in plaintiffs are “similarly situated.” Id.; Smith v. Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., No. 03-2420, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21010, at *10, 2003 WL 22701017, at *3 (E.D.Pa. Nov. 13, 2003). When discovery is complete, a more fact-specific second-stage inquiry occurs into whether the proposed opt-in class is, indeed, similarly situated. Id.

The FLSA does not define the term “similarly situated” and neither the United States Supreme Court nor the Third Circuit provide direct guidance on determining whether potential class members are similarly situated. In the absence of definitive precedent, district courts in the Third Circuit have developed a two-stage test. Bishop v. AT & T Corp., 256 F.R.D. 503, 507 (W.D.Pa.2009) (citing Kronick v. Bebe Stores, No. 07-4514, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78502, at *1, 2008 WL 4546368, at *1 (D.N.J. Oct. 2, 2008)). However, courts in our Circuit differ as the requirements of the first stage. “Some courts have determined that plaintiffs need merely allege that the putative class members were injured as a result of a single policy of a defendant employer.” Bosley v. Chubb Corp., No. 04-cv-4598, 2005 U.S.

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