Joshua Dodge v. Qualtek Wireless LLC

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California denied without prejudice Joshua Dodge’s motion for conditional certification of an FLSA collective action against Qualtek Wireless LLC. The court found that the evidence did not support the proposed nationwide collective of all hourly employees and allowed plaintiff an opportunity to narrow the class definition or supplement the evidentiary record.

Holdings

1. Conditional certification was not appropriate because plaintiff's evidence concerned telecom or telecommunications-tower employees and did not support the proposed collective encompassing all of Qualtek's hourly employees.
2. The court declined to narrow the proposed collective at that time because neither party proposed a definition focused on telecom employees, telecom tower employees, or Tower Technicians, and the propriety of such a narrowed definition had not been addressed.

Questions Presented

1. Whether plaintiff established that the proposed collective of all Qualtek hourly employees was similarly situated for purposes of conditional certification under the FLSA.
2. Whether the court should narrow the proposed collective or permit plaintiff to refile or supplement the motion after further discovery.

Disposition

other