Seyfarth Synopsis: A judge in the Southern District of New York held that FLSA off-the-clock claims could not proceed collectively because the employer's policy enforcement and approval of overtime compensation varied by supervisor.
In Lynch v. City of New York, Judge Katherine Forrest rejected an attempt to prosecute a single collective action for off-the-clock claims of employees in different units reporting to different supervisors. Ordering the case decertified, she held that the plaintiffs' own testimony showed "critical differences in what supervisors told their employees about overtime."
A group of five representative plaintiffs–current and former administrative assistants–asserted FLSA claims against the New York City Department of Homeless Services. The group had been granted conditional certification of a FLSA collective action, which requires only a modest showing that the employees were similarly situated with respect to alleged FLSA violations. A total of 30 opt-ins remained at the final certification stage.
Following discovery and motion practice, the court granted the City's motion for decertification of the FLSA collective, determining that the plaintiffs were not similarly situated under the more stringent standard applicable after discovery is complete.
To determine whether plaintiffs could proceed collectively, the court analyzed whether the employees worked in disparate settings, whether the City would have individualized defenses to the employees' claims, and the impact of fairness and procedural considerations. The court sided with the City on all of these factors due to the highly individualized nature of plaintiffs' experiences with overtime compensation.
The core issues were whether the City had knowledge of plaintiffs' uncompensated work outside regular hours and whether supervisors had uniform practices. Plaintiffs' depositions revealed variations by supervisor on what employees were told about overtime and whether overtime compensation requests were approved. Employees were responsible for recording their hours in an electronic timekeeping system and submitting requests to be compensated for overtime hours. Plaintiffs claimed they did not always request to be compensated for overtime work, even though requests were routinely granted—98.5% of requests since July 2013 were approved.
These individualized factual issues and proof, the court said, meant there were few procedural benefits and little judicial efficiency to be gained through collective action. However, Judge Forrest left open the possibility of collective treatment of appropriate subclasses by supervisor or unit.
This opinion is another example of why employers should not get discouraged after an early pre-discovery grant of conditional certification. Even though courts regularly invoke the "lenient standard" at that stage, and sometimes decline to review the defendant's evidence, all bets are off by the time the factual record is complete and the time for final certification arrives.
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