Justin Washington, on behalf of himself, FLSA Collective Plaintiffs, and the Class v. Green Trips Inc. d/b/a Green Trips and Peter Kim

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York addresses Plaintiff Justin Washington’s motions to amend the complaint, conditionally certify an FLSA collective, and compel discovery in an action alleging unpaid overtime and violations of New York wage laws. The court grants leave to amend, conditionally certifies a collective of current and former New York drivers employed by Defendants on or after May 16, 2018 through December 19, 2025, denies Plaintiff’s motion to strike Defendants’ opposition, and grants related relief concerning notice and discovery.

Holdings

1. Leave to amend was granted because Defendants failed to establish undue delay, bad faith, or undue prejudice, and the proposed amendments concerned additional allegations supported by discovery.
2. The motion to strike Defendants' opposition to conditional certification was denied, and Defendants' request for a nunc pro tunc extension was granted.
3. Plaintiff satisfied the lenient first-stage standard for conditional certification by making a modest factual showing that he and other current and former New York drivers may have been subject to a common policy of unpaid work and overtime violations.
4. The court authorized dissemination of the collective-action notice and consent form by mail, email, and text message, subject to court-approved or subsequently submitted text-message language.
5. Defendants were ordered to produce an Excel spreadsheet containing covered employees' names, titles, dates of employment, last-known mailing addresses, email addresses, and known telephone numbers, but not compensation rates.
6. The motion to compel was granted in part as to discovery concerning potential collective members, while the request to schedule depositions was denied as moot because Defendants had already offered deposition times.
7. The court did not toll the FLSA limitations period at that time but granted Plaintiff leave to request equitable tolling in a motion for final approval of the collective.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Plaintiff should be granted leave to amend the complaint to add allegations concerning additional time-shaving practices.
2. Whether Plaintiff made the modest factual showing required for conditional certification of an FLSA collective of current and former drivers.
3. Whether the court should authorize dissemination of collective-action notice by mail, email, and text message and require production of potential collective members' contact information.
4. Whether Plaintiff's motion to strike Defendants' opposition to conditional certification should be granted as untimely.
5. Whether Plaintiff's motion to compel should be granted as to discovery concerning potential collective members and deposition scheduling.
6. Whether equitable tolling of the FLSA limitations period should be granted at the conditional-certification stage.

Disposition

other