TAMPA – The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida recently granted part of a a pet grooming salon's motion to dismiss a claim involving former employees who say the company violated the Fair Labor Standard Act.
In a Jan. 17 filing, U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew granted in part and denied in part Love Pet Grooming Salon's motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. The salon filed the motion in response to a lawsuit filed by Brittany Westley and three other former Love Pet employees who claim that the company violated the the FLSA.
This is the third amended complaint filed by the former employees who claim that while working as pet groomers between 2016 and 2018, the company's president violated the FLSA and Florida's Minimum Wage Act.
Bucklew granted Love Pet's motion "to the extent that there is no enterprise coverage" and claims of FLSA violations against the company's president.
Love Pet said the enterprise coverage did not apply because the company did not have annual gross volume of sales made or business done "of at least $500,000 in 2014 through the first three quarters of 2018," court documents said.
However, lawyers for the former employees argued that those figures can not be certain since Love Pet has not filed 2017 tax returns nor have figures for cash and noncredit card sales transactions. The court however, denied a request for an additional 90 days for discovery.
With regard to the claim for individual coverage, that former employees made and received interstate telephone calls, text messages, and email inquiries in order to schedule services for pets of seasonal, out-of-state customers, the court said individual coverage had been adequately pleaded.