By Joyce Hanson, Law360 (April 1, 2019) — A former worker at two jointly owned Chinese restaurants has urged a New York federal court to quickly grant conditional class certification in his overtime suit, saying he has located a sufficient number of individuals to opt in to the collective action.
Lijun Geng asked the court Sunday for certification in his Fair Labor Standards Act suit against Hui Fu Chinese Cuisine and Shu Han Ju restaurants in Manhattan, arguing that it’s “critical” for all similarly situated employees to receive notice as soon as possible and be given the opportunity to opt in, because their claims may otherwise be eroded or extinguished with every day that passes under the statute of limitations for FLSA claims.
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“I think the appropriate response of an employer who shortchanges not just one but all their employees by failing to pay overtime is not to say that the lead plaintiff who took the lead to bring an action against the employer asked ‘to be treated in such a way as to help’ the collective action, or assert that there is a ‘cottage industry,’ but that Chinese restaurants are prolific violators of wage-and-hour laws.”
The suit seeks an award of unpaid overtime wages under the FLSA and New York Labor Law, plus compensatory and liquidated damages under the state’s Wage Theft Prevention Act.
–Editing by Orlando Lorenzo.
The article first appeared on Law360 at: https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1144908/chinese-restaurant-worker-seeks-class-cert-in-ot-suit