Willoughby v. Youth Villages, Inc.

113 F. Supp. 3d 1265, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91359, 2015 WL 4127276
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedJune 26, 2015
DocketCivil Action No. 1:13-CV-3910-SCJ
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 113 F. Supp. 3d 1265 (Willoughby v. Youth Villages, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Willoughby v. Youth Villages, Inc., 113 F. Supp. 3d 1265, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91359, 2015 WL 4127276 (N.D. Ga. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER

STEVE C. JONES, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on Defendant’s motion to decertify class [92]; Plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment [104]; Defendant’s motion for summary judgment [105]; and Plaintiffs’ motion to strike [107].

1. Background

A. Procedural History and Facts

Plaintiffs, Paul Willou'ghby, Phillip Davis, and Crystal Foster-Gadsden,1 filed suit against Defendant, Youth Villages, Inc., on November" 23, 2013, as an “opt-in” action under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 201 et seq.2 At the time [1268]*1268of Defendant’s motion to decertify, 48 Plaintiffs remain in the action. The parties engaged in a sampling of discovery to address certification issues and have also filed cross-motions for partial summary judgment.

Youth Villages operates one of Georgia’s largest psychiatric residential treatment programs for emotionally disturbed youth. Plaintiffs are teacher counselors or lead teacher counselors employed by Youth Villages. Plaintiffs allege Youth Villages had a “fluctuating workweek” policy that resulted in violations of the FLSA because Defendant did not pay Plaintiffs overtime wages when they worked a week exceeding forty hours. Plaintiffs contend that Defendant’s automatic deduction for “breaks” failed to account for the fact that Plaintiffs often did not have the opportunity to take breaks.

In general terms, a “fluctuating workweek” is a recognized form of compensation under the FLSA whereby an employee is paid a “base rate salary” each week regardless of the number of hours the employee works. The employee then receives overtime pay for hours worked over 40 at a rate of one-half the regular base rate hourly salary.

Youth Villages provided a Compensation Agreement to each employee which explained the manner in which the “fluctuating workweek” operated. See Docket Entry [99], Ex. E. It recited that the employee would be paid:

A base weekly salary of $_, to be treated as guaranteed pay for whatever number of hours are worked, however many or few per work week. The base salary covers the straight time for all hours worked during the work week.
In the event the Employee is absent from work for sick days (non-FMLA), vacation, holidays, or personal days, the full weekly salary will still be paid to the Employee. Leave taken will, of course, be deducted from the Employee’s leave balance for the particular type of leave.
Should the Employee be absent for leave qualifying under the Family and Medical Leave Act, whether for a partial day or a full day of absence, the Employer will make deductions from the weekly salary on the same basis as utilized for other employees of the Employer.
Additional overtime compensation at the rate explained below will be paid to the Employee for each hour worked in excess of forty (40) hours in any work week.
Overtime compensation will be determined by dividing the base weekly salary by the number of hours worked in each week. Each overtime hour will be paid at one-half the rate determined for each respective week. Under no circumstances shall the Employee be paid less than any required minimum wage rate.
For example (using a $450/week base salary):
If Employee worked 50 hours, the base salary of $450 divided by 50 hours=average regular rate of $9. The 10 hours above 40 (overtime hours) would be multiplied by one-half the $9 rate ($4.50/hour), producing additional overtime pay of $45 ($4.50 x 10 hours) beyond the base weekly salary. Total pay would thus be $495 (the $450 base weekly salary plus $45 overtime pay) for this example week. In another week, if the Employee worked 45 hours, $450 divided by 45 hours =a regular rate of $10, or halftime of $5/hour. This $5 rate multi[1269]*1269plied by 5 overtime hours produces $25 in overtime pay. Total for this example week would be $475 ($450 base weekly salary + $25 overtime pay).
Should the employee work 40 hours or less in a work week, the employee will receive the base of $450 as ho additional compensation would be owed.

Id. at 1.

Breaks of 30 minutes for every six hours worked were automatically deducted under Defendant’s payroll system. Thé parties vigorously contest the manner in which the automatic deductions were handled. "While there is testimony in the record that staffing problems and mandatory teacher-youth ratios meant that teacher counselors did not always get their breaks, there is also testimony that Plaintiffs were able to take some breaks during some portion of their employment. See Artumus Depo., at 34, 46-47 (testifying he read or listened to music on breaks, but stating he did not always get to take breaks); .Liner Depo., at 26-28 (testifying that whether he could take a break “varied a lot,over the years because staffing has varied” and that “there have been weeks gone by that I didn’t get a break the whole week. Other times it’s been I didn’t get a.break some weekends. There have been times when we were better staffed and I was able to get breaks on a regular basis.”); Thompson Depo., at 38 (non-Plaintiff supervisor testified that some teacher counselors got breaks every day. depending on staffing); Schwam Depo., at 41 (during her time on the “blue” unit, she would take breaks about half the time); Ventre Depo., at 38 (during weeks when there was .not “acting out” behavior, he would take breaks while kids were asleep).

If an employee did not get a break, Defendant believed that the employee was instructed to inform the payroll departs ment and a correction on their payroll records would be made. At some point during the relevant time period, Defendant also asked employees to fill out “break logs” showing whether they had actually been able to take a break. But there is varying testimony on whether all Plaintiffs received the same instructions on how to seek corrections and whether the “break logs” system worked to capture accurately whether the employee had taken a break. See Artumus Depo., at 42-43 (testifying he believed errors were made as to his breaks on four occasions, Defendant issued a check to correct two of the errors and determined that the other two were actually miscalculations by Artumus); Graham Depo., at 42 (testifying his supervisor told him to email or text him when he could not take a break and he did not have any issues after that); Willoughby Depo., at 114 (he “supposes” that he was to fill out break log showing whether he was able to take break or not, but he never did because he was “too busy”).

There is no dispute in the record that numerous employees did have their payroll records corrected on a significant number of occasions. See Docket Entry [101], Ex. 1.3 At least twenty-four Plaintiffs asked for the automatic deductions to be cancelled on at least one occasion. Four Plaintiffs asked for cancellations on over 100 occasions, including one Plaintiff who received 272 cancellations.

B. Contentions

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Miller v. FleetCor Technologies Operating Co.
118 F. Supp. 3d 1351 (N.D. Georgia, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
113 F. Supp. 3d 1265, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91359, 2015 WL 4127276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/willoughby-v-youth-villages-inc-gand-2015.