Seyfarth Defeats Class Certification for WinCo Foods In Assistant Store Manager Misclassification Case

Judge Breyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California refused to certify a proposed class of assistant managers at WinCo Food’s discount warehouse grocery stores in California.  In Gales v. WinCo Foods, No. C 09-05813 CRB, 2011 WL 3794887 (N.D. Cal 2011), a former assistant manager at one of WinCo’s California stores moved to certify a statewide class of current and former assistant managers, alleging that WinCo had a uniform policy of misclassifying assistant managers as exempt from overtime under California law.  WinCo, represented by Seyfarth, opposed class certification with evidence that the amount of time assistant managers spent on managerial duties varied from store to store and from assistant manager to assistant manager.  The Court agreed with WinCo and held that the individual issues as to how assistant managers actually spent their time predominated over common issues, thereby defeating class certification. 

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