Announcing that “class-wide relief remains the preferred method of resolving wage and hour claims, even those in which the facts appear to present difficult issues of proof,” the California Court of Appeal reversed an order denying certification of a class of restaurant managers who claimed they were misclassified as exempt employees and denied overtime pay in violation of California law. Martinez et al. v. Joe’s Crab Shack et al., No. B242807 (Cal. Ct. App. Dec. 4, 2013). The Court found that the trial court incorrectly focused on factual disputes regarding how the managers spent their time, rather than on the employer’s policies the managers alleged resulted in their misclassification. In so doing, the trial court improperly shifted the burden of proving the exemption to the employees, the Court noted.
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