Class Of Hourly University Employees Certified Under FLSA
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A federal district court on May 19, 2011 granted conditional class certification in a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) lawsuit seeking unpaid overtime for hourly employees of a university. Mahmood, et al. v. Grantham University, Inc., No. 10-621, W.D. Mo. 2011).
Five admissions representatives employed by Grantham University Inc. filed a collective action complaint in June 2010 against their employer, seeking unpaid regular and overtime compensation and related penalties and damages under the FLSA. The employees amended their complaint in October, specifically claiming that they regularly worked over 40 hours per week but that management amended their time sheets to falsely reflect 40-hour work weeks.
The plaintiffs in November moved for conditional certification of a class, including all non-exempt hourly employees employed by defendant from May 19, 2011, to the present.
Granting the motion, the District Court rejected the defendant's argument that the suit must fail based on the fact that it can show it paid overtime to these employees stating:
"The Court does not doubt that the Defendant can show that it has paid overtime at some point in its existence. In fact, it would be somewhat shocking were that not the case. While the Plaintiffs may have rhetorically suggested at some point that they were never paid overtime, their allegations are actually that the Defendant 'routinely' modified their timecards to remove overtime. If true, the fact that the Defendant has paid some overtime is no defense. Allowing for such an inference to defeat conditional class certification would seriously undermine the efficacy of the FLSA's private right of action by only allowing collective actions when 100% of the overtime due has allegedly been withheld. Accordingly, the Court finds no basis to restrict the class to Admissions Representatives in the face of the Plaintiffs' substantial allegations - corroborated by management and employees from different departments - that similar policies were applied to all hourly employees."
(Abstract of Article from LexisNexis® Mealey's™ Litigation Report Employment Law, Vol. 7, Issue #11, June 2011).