Li v. New Asia Chinese Restaurant Wan Da Inc

Background

Changshan Li moved for conditional certification of a collective action under Section 216(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and for court-supervised notice to potential collective-action members. The opinion explains that FLSA collective actions allow employees to sue on behalf of themselves and other employees who are similarly situated.

The court described a two-stage process. At the initial stage, a plaintiff must provide evidence beyond the complaint showing a factual basis for claiming that potential collective members were affected by a common decision, policy, or plan. After discovery, the court applies a stricter, fact-intensive standard and may decide whether the case should continue collectively or be divided into separate cases. The court found that this case was at the initial stage and that Li met the applicable burden.

Rulings

The court granted Li’s motion for conditional certification under the FLSA. The conditionally certified group includes all individuals currently or formerly employed by New Asia Chinese Restaurant Wan Da Inc., doing business under the names listed in the order, anywhere in the United States as non-exempt employees at any time during the three years before the court-approved notice is issued.

Subject to further court order, the court designated Charlie R. Alden, Jian Hang, and Ge Qu as counsel for the FLSA collective-action class. The court directed New Asia to provide counsel with a computer-readable file containing the names, last-known physical addresses, and last-known email addresses of potential collective-action members employed since June 27, 2019, through the date of the order.

The court granted in part the request to provide notice by United States mail and email. Counsel was authorized to send the notice, an opt-in consent form, and a proposed reminder by first-class mail and email. The court required the notice to be changed by removing references to Hong Sheng Lin and Rong Lin from its first paragraph, so that references to the defendants in the notice would refer only to New Asia Chinese Restaurant Wan Da Inc. The court denied the request for potential members’ last-known telephone numbers and dates of employment at this notice stage and directed counsel to discuss possible future discovery. The court also denied the request to allow consent forms to be returned by text message because the approved notice would use only mail and email.

Potential members who wished to join the collective action were required to do so within 90 days after counsel mailed the notice and consent forms. The court set rules for when consent forms would be considered effective and filed, and required counsel to electronically file received forms weekly and no later than 14 days after the opt-in period ended.

Other case-management orders

The court stayed all discovery and other deadlines, except deadlines related to the pending motion to dismiss, until after a pretrial conference. The court canceled the hearing that had been scheduled for September 1, 2022, on the motion for conditional certification and court-supervised notice.

Disposition

The motion for conditional certification was granted. The request for FLSA notice by mail and email was granted in part, subject to the modifications stated in the order. The court also entered the information, opt-in, discovery-stay, and hearing-cancellation orders described above. The order was signed by Becky R. Thorson, United States Magistrate Judge.