Vanhorn v. Community Builders Incorporated

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS CENTRAL DIVISION NIKKI VANHORN; STORME HASKINS; WHITTNEY MITCHELL; DAMIEN MITCHELL; and DEAN MORRISON, Each Individually and on Behalf of All Others Similarly Situated PLAINTIFFS No. 4:20-cv-118-DPM COMMUNITY BUILDERS, INCORPORATED; CBI HOME IMPROVEMENTS; and GREG WOLTER DEFENDANTS ORDER According to Greg Wolter, its owner and CEO, Community Builders offers affordable, high-quality remodeling solutions to homeowners. CBI Home Improvements is supposedly a related entity. Siding and roofing seem to be mainstays for this business. Vanhorn and the other plaintiffs say they worked for Community Builders, CBI, and Wolter. Some folks were canvassers, displaying the company’s products to potential clients, while others were in a call center, helping customers, contractors, and prospects. The workers were paid hourly. They say they worked more than forty hours a week, were not paid for their overtime, and got shorted on bonuses. They also say that, in the last three years, there were more than ten canvassers and ten call center employees in Arkansas and Oklahoma who were underpaid in the same way. The workers move to conditionally certify a collective action. Community Builders, CBI, and Wolter oppose certification. The employers make several points: they have a clear and strictly enforced time-keeping policy; they pay their workers for all their time on the clock; and there’s no practice or policy to shave time in the ways alleged. All material circumstances considered, the workers have made the modest factual showing required under the fairly lenient legal standard. Helmert v. Butterball, LLC, 2009 WL 5066759 at *3 (E.D. Ark. 15 Dec. 2009); Freeman v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 256 F. Supp. 2d 941, 944-45 (W.D. Ark. 2003). Vanhorn and the others were similarly situated. Even though they had two different jobs, they worked under the same hourly/bonus pay structure. Plus, they allege that they were affected in the same basic ways. Smith v. Frac Tech Services, LLC, No. 4:09-cv-679-JLH, Doc. 65 (E.D. Ark. 24 Nov. 2009). Because all the declarations are from Arkansawyers, who say they know about the employers’ practices in Arkansas, the Court declines to include Oklahoma workers in the group. The pay structure was the same in both places. But the workers haven't offered evidence that the same kind of problems existed in the employers’ Oklahoma operation. Dandison v. Hank’s Furniture, Inc, No. 4:15-cv-62-DPM, 2015 WL 2354032 at *1 (E.D. Ark. 15 May 2015). The Court also declines the employers’ request to carve out part-time employees from the -2- group. That cut risks eliminating workers who may have crossed the forty-hour mark. The Court therefore conditionally certifies the following group: All current and former call center personnel and canvassers who worked for Community Builders, Inc., CBI Home Improvements, and Greg Wolter, and were paid an hourly rate, at any time since 4 February 2017. The employers must provide plaintiffs’ counsel (on an electronic spreadsheet) a list of names, addresses, and e-mail addresses of group members. The notice, consent form, email, and follow-up notice are approved with tweaks. Doc. 11-1, Doc. 11-2, Doc. 11-3, Doc. 11-4 & Doc. 11-5. Update the group description. Delete the dash in “hourly paid” each time that phrase appears. Plaintiffs’ counsel must send the notice by regular mail with a follow-up notice by e-mail, as the employers propose. Texts are not necessary. The employers must also post the notice at the Arkansas call center and any other company location in Arkansas where the canvassers are based. Here’s the schedule: e Community Builders, CBI, and Wolter produce spreadsheet 26 June 2020 e Notice period opens 1 July 2020 e Opt-in period closes 1 October 2020 * -3- Motion, Doc. 11, granted as modified. So Ordered. WPvVantell f. D.P. Marshall Jr. United States District Judge 17 rune. 2-020 _4-