Ruiz v. Truffa Pizzeria & Wine Room Corp.

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedFebruary 15, 2021
Docket1:20-cv-08645
StatusUnknown

This text of Ruiz v. Truffa Pizzeria & Wine Room Corp. (Ruiz v. Truffa Pizzeria & Wine Room Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ruiz v. Truffa Pizzeria & Wine Room Corp., (S.D.N.Y. 2021).

Opinion

USDC SDNY DOCUMENT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK DOC #: ee DR DATE FILED:_ 2/15/2021 SANDY RUIZ, on behalf of himself and all others : similarly situated, : Plaintiffs, : 20-cv-8645 (LJL) -V- : OPINION AND ORDER TRUFFA PIZZERIA & WINE ROOM CORP. d/b/a : COCINA CHENTE MEXICAN CUISINE, et al., : Defendants. :

LEWIS J. LIMAN, United States District Judge: Plaintiff Sandy Ruiz (“Plaintiff or “Ruiz”) moves for conditional certification of a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 201 et seg. (“FLSA”). Dkt. No. 23. For the following reasons, the Court: (1) grants the motion for conditional certification; (2) approves the proposed court-facilitated notice to the collective, with the additional language requested by the Court; and (3) grants in part and denies in part Plaintiff’s motion for discovery of the contact information of the collective. BACKGROUND Plaintiff was employed from or about July 24, 2017 until May 1, 2020, as a cook at Cocina Chente Mexican Cuisine (“Cocina Chente”), a Mexican restaurant run by Defendants Truffa Pizzeria & Wine Room Corp. d/b/a Cocina Chente, Moises Lopez Sr. (“Lopez Sr.”), Roma Lopez (“Roma Lopez”), and Juan Rosario (“Rosario”) (collectively, “Defendants”). He alleges that throughout the majority of his employment with Defendants, he was regularly scheduled to work more than 40 hours each week without a meal break and between five and six days per week. Dkt. No. 1 (“Compl.”) {| 41-42, 44. He also alleges that he was paid a flat

weekly salary that was not inclusive of overtime and that was always paid in cash. Id. ¶¶ 45-47. He also alleges that he was often asked to perform duties off the clock, before and after his scheduled work shift, that Defendants never discussed overtime compensation or overtime work with him, and that he never received any written record of his regular and/or overtime hours worked. Id. ¶¶ 52-54.

On October 16, 2020, he brought this action asserting claims on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated to recover unpaid overtime compensation under the FLSA and the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”). He asserts four causes of action: (1) failure to pay overtime compensation in violation of FLSA; (2) failure to pay overtime compensation in violation of NYLL; (3) failure to provide annual wage notices in violation of NYLL; and (4) failure to provide wage statements in violation of NYLL. Id. ¶¶ 59-77. Ruiz brings the action on behalf of himself and “approximately 25 similarly situated current and former cooks, food prep workers, dishwashers, servers and bartenders” who have worked for Cocina Chente in the three-year period prior to the filing of the complaint (the

“FLSA Collective”). Id. ¶¶ 1, 31-32. He alleges that members of the FLSA Collective were “victims of Defendants’ common policy and practices that have violated their rights under the FLSA by, inter alia, willfully denying them overtime wages.” Id. ¶ 32. He further alleges that “[a]s part of their regular business practice, Defendants . . . engag[ed] in a pattern and/or policy . . . [that] includ[ed], inter alia, . . . failing to pay employees the applicable overtime rate for all time worked in excess of forty (40) hours per week” and engaged in that conduct “pursuant to a corporate policy of minimizing costs and denying employees legally required compensation.” Id. ¶¶ 33-34. On January 1, 2021, he filed the instant motion under 29 U.S.C. § 216(b) seeking (1) conditional certification of a FLSA collective action; (2) court-facilitated notice of the FLSA action to covered employees; (3) approval of the proposed notice of the action and consent form; (4) production of certain information with respect to the covered employees; and (5) posting of the notice, along with the consent forms, in conspicuous locations at Cocina Chente. Dkt. No.

23. The motion is directed to cooks, food preparers, and dishwashers as members of the FLSA collective. Dkt. No. 26 at 1 n.1, 5. The motion is supported by a declaration of Ruiz under penalty of perjury. Ruiz declares that Defendants dictated his work schedule and the schedules of other employees at Cocina Chente and that he is “almost certain that every week” he worked for Defendants, he worked more than 40 hours per week, usually working nine hours a day without a lunch break, and did not receive overtime pay. Dkt. No. 25 ¶¶ 2-10. Moreover, throughout Ruiz’s employment, “Defendants did not have a time clock machine” and Ruiz “was not required to clock a machine when [he] arrived and left work or sign a notebook.” Id. ¶ 14. Ruiz also swears that he would frequently discuss with the other restaurant workers the

fact that they were not paid overtime. Id. ¶ 16. He offers specific information: A cook named Claston “complained to [Ruiz] that he was not being paid correctly multiple times. . . . [i.e.,] that he was working long hours but not getting paid overtime.” Id. ¶ 17. Claston worked at Cocina Chente from 2019 through 2020, six days per week, from 2:00 p.m. until approximately 11:30 p.m. Id. ¶¶ 18-19. Alexis, a food preparer and cook at Cocina Chente, complained to Ruiz numerous times that he was not being paid correctly. He worked six days per week from 2:00 p.m. to approximately 11:00 p.m. and was paid only $600 per week. Id. ¶¶ 20-21. Ruiz also declares that dishwashers at Cocina Chente were not paid correctly. For example, Elido Cruz (“Cruz”) worked at Cocina Chente from 2019 through 2020 and complained to Ruiz that he was working long hours without being paid overtime. He worked six days per week from 2:00 p.m. to approximately 11:30 p.m. but was paid only $540 per week. Id. ¶¶ 22-23. Jose Perez (“Perez”) worked as a dishwasher from 2017 to 2018 at Cocina Chente and discussed with Ruiz that he was not being paid correctly and should be getting overtime. Id. ¶ 24. Like Cruz, he worked six days per week from 2:00 p.m. to approximately 11:30 p.m. but was paid only $540

per week. Id. All of these individuals, like Ruiz, were paid only in cash. Id. ¶ 26. Defendants submit four declarations in opposition to the motion for conditional certification. See Dkt. Nos. 30-33.1 Lopez Sr. declares under penalty of perjury that he has worked at Cocina Chente since 2017 and that there were only two cooks in the restaurant; he was one of the cooks and Ruiz was the other cook. Dkt. No. 31 ¶¶ 4-6. He states that he and Ruiz performed different duties, work on different schedules, and received different rates of pay. Id. ¶ 7. A second declaration was submitted by Roma Lopez, who has been the manager of Cocina Chente since 2017. Dkt No. 32 ¶ 3. Roma Lopez also declares that there were only two cooks at the restaurant—Lopez Sr. and Ruiz—and that there was an additional part-time line-cook—

Alexis—and several dishwashers in the kitchen. Id. ¶¶ 4-5, 9. The employees “perform different duties in different areas of the restaurant” and “worked on different schedules based on their job duties and availabilities and received different rates of pay.” Id. at ¶¶ 4, 11. Roma Lopez states that Claston was a dishwasher until he moved to North Carolina (as opposed to Ruiz’s contention that he was a cook), Cruz was also a dishwasher, and Alexis was a part-time dishwasher and part-time line-cook (as opposed to Ruiz’s contention that he was a cook). Id. ¶¶ 7-9. Roma Lopez states that Alexis never worked as a cook and that he worked approximately five days per

1 The fourth declaration was submitted by Defendants’ counsel to introduce the three substantive declarations. Dkt. No. 30. week: two days as a dishwasher and three days as the part-time line-cook. Id. ¶ 9. Roma Lopez states that Cruz normally worked five days per week from 2:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m.

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