From JDSupra, Richard Reibstein reports that a federal court in California issued a tenative order saying that franchisees were misclassified as independent contractors. Richard writes:
PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT ENTERED AGAINST NATIONWIDE COMMERCIAL JANITORIAL COMPANY IN LAWSUIT BY FRANCHISEES. A California federal district court has partially granted a motion seeking certification of a class of over 100 commercial cleaning franchisees and then partially granted their motion for summary judgment on certain wage and hour claims against an international janitorial cleaning business. The franchisees claim the company misclassified them as independent contractors instead of employees. The court’s tentative order finds that the janitors are employees and not independent contractors and applies to the franchisees’ claims for failure to pay minimum wage for travel time and mandatory training, failure to reimburse them for expenses incurred in purchasing required uniforms and necessary cleaning supplies and equipment, and for deductions for franchise fee and cleaning revenue royalties. The order denies class certification as to remaining wage and hour claims, including alleged violations regarding overtime compensation and minimum wage payments for cleaning work. Depianti v. Jan-Pro Franchising Int’l, Inc., No. 3:16-cv-05961 (May 13, 2022).
