Where a security contractor misclassified its guards as independent contractors rather than employees, the employees’ motion for summary judgment was granted.
Background
Plaintiff Jonathan Rangel brings collective action claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, and putative class action claims under the wage and hour laws of multiple states and the Virginia misclassification of workers statute. Plaintiff contends that defendant DMV Protection, LLC, which provides its clients with security personnel, and its owner, defendant Jovan Vladic, misclassified DMV’s security officers as independent contractors and, as a result, failed to pay them proper overtime premiums and certain wages.
Before the court are plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment on the issues of misclassification and Vladic’s individual liability and defendants’ motion for decertification.
Decertification
Defendants contend that the FLSA collective should be decertified because the putative collective members are not clearly identified or similarly situated and because allowing the case to proceed as a collective action would be procedurally cumbersome and unfair to defendants. The court disagrees.
The class definition is precise and based on DMV’s detailed payroll records, with no evidence of widespread error or incomplete records. Furthermore, the record is replete with information on DMV’s sophisticated hours-tracking system. Therefore, the class definition does not support...
Millions of Aussies will be cheering Ben Roberts-Smith after seeing his publicity campaign. But we must leave all these matters to a criminal court to decide – this time beyond reasonable doubt.