Law Office of Brian L. Greben Protects Restaurant from Unfair Collective Action

02 Mar Law Office of Brian L. Greben Protects Restaurant from Unfair Collective Action

In Joshi v. Flagship S B Amsterdam NY, LLC, et al., 17 cv 5785 (ALC)(SN) (S.D.N.Y., Mar. 1, 2018), Judge Sarah Netburn denied plaintiff’s motion for conditional collective certification against our clients.  Although the standard plaintiffs must meet for such motions is very lenient, Judge Netburn held that Joshi failed to satisfy the criteria necessary to conditionally certify a collective action.  Judge Netburn concluded her decision as follows:

Joshi has requested conditional certification of a broadly defined collective consisting of all servers, server assistants, back waiters, bussers, runners, bartenders, bar backs, food preparers, and cooks who were employed in any of Defendants three New York locations within the last six years. Joshi is unfit to represent a class of all these employees. And, with respect to those employees who may be similarly situated to Joshi, his vague allegations do not meet the low standard of establishing that Joshi and others were victims of a common policy that violated the law. Thus, Joshi’s motion to conditionally certify this case as a representative collective action pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 216(b) is DENIED.

Judge Netburn’s opinion may be viewed with this link:

Denial of motion for conditional certification 3.1.18

We note that each case is unique, and present victories do not guarantee future results.