As we've noted before, many courts have applied the standard for conditional certification so leniently that in places the requirement of a group of "similarly situated" employees under the FLSA has all but disappeared. So, it's refreshing to see a case that still requires at least a minimal showing of a similarly situated class – and in particular one involving restaurants, one of the most fertile sources of collective action litigation.
In Cedeno v. Kona Grill, Inc., Case No. 8:17-cv-01039-JSM-AEP (M.D. Fla., July 24, 2017), the plaintiff was a sous chef at a Kona Grill restaurant in Sarasota, Florida. He brought a collective action for alleged unpaid overtime, contending that he and others had been misclassified as exempt. He sought to represent employees holding a range of positions in the restaurant's 46 locations in the United States and Puerto Rico.
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