Fla. Golf Course Reaches Overtime Pay Class Action Settlement

In a joint motion for settlement, both a country club and a group of workers asked a judge in Florida federal court to dismiss the active lawsuit and approve the overtime pay class action settlement reached by the two parties.

The allegations in the Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit claimed that the country club avoided paying overtime to workers by splitting their hours between two separate golf courses.

The overtime pay class action settlement will include a total of $130,000 that will be paid to a total of 35 workers as well as any related fees to resolve the claims.

As part of the overtime pay class action settlement, the lead plaintiffs and former maintenance staff members Mark Werman and Ronald Segui reduced their damages calculation from double their claimed unpaid wages to a factor of 1.5 times in exchange for dismissing the suit and having a quicker settlement.

Although Rotonda Golf Partners LLC agreed to pay the $130,000 in order to avoid the potential of more costly litigation, it did not admit any wrongdoing.

“Plaintiffs’ probability of success on the merits, and the amount of any potential award, also is uncertain, further suggesting that this settlement is fair and appropriate,” both parties wrote. “The plaintiffs assert, and the defendants deny, that the plaintiffs are owed wages due to defendants’ alleged violations of the FLSA.”

The overtime pay class action lawsuit was filed initially in May and said that the country club sidestepped paying workers time-and-a-half wages by splitting the time the workers spent at two different golf course locations and paid them at their standard wage for any hours worked above 40 per week.

In June, settlement discussions began “in an effort to avoid the cost and risk associated with continued litigation.”  In July, the court granted a motion to stay the case until October 7 to allow both parties the time to work toward a favorable settlement.

After sending opt-out letters to a total of 36 former and current maintenance workers who were employed at the country club’s between March 2014 and July 2016, 11 workers in total joined the overtime pay class action lawsuit.

At this time, the overtime pay class action settlement court documents indicated that Rotonda had already compensated 35 workers for a total of nearly $96,000, the amount that was requested in the lawsuit to pay the workers.

Rotonda separately agreed to pay the remaining $34,000 to cover the costs of the litigation.

In the overtime pay class action settlement motion, both parties urged the federal judge to approve the settlement, stating that it was fair and that both parties would have endured further cost with no guarantee of a successful outcome if the trial proceeded.

The Overtime Pay Class Action Lawsuit is Mark Werman et al. v. Rotonda Golf Partners LLC et al., Case No. 2:16-cv-00356, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

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