A federal court in Virginia has conditionally certified a class of bartenders and barbacks who claimed a rock festival violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, and Virginia law.
The defendants argued that class certification wasn’t warranted because the plaintiffs didn’t prove they were all similarly situated. And even if they did, the case would be unmanageable because the court would have to inquire about each claimant’s experience working at the festivals.
But U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon disagreed.
“At bottom, Plaintiffs’ evidentiary showing suffices at this stage of the case to establish that Plaintiffs and the other proposed collective action members are ‘similarly situated’ for purposes of the FLSA, and further, that no individualized inquiry would render inefficient their proceeding as a collective action,” he wrote. “Plaintiffs have established their entitlement to conditional certification of their FLSA collective action.”
Jonathan Slye is the primary owner and managing member of the Virginia company that operated the Blue Ridge Rock Festival in 2021 and 2022. Fifteen people employed to work as bartenders and barbacks sued the defendants in September 2022, alleging that the defendants failed to pay minimum wage, overtime and tips required under the FLSA as well as Virginia’s Wage Payment Act and Minimum Wage Act.
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