SAN FRANCISCO – An Oakland man alleges a yoga studio did not pay him a minimum wage for cleaning services.
William Walsh filed a complaint on behalf of himself and all those similarly situated on Oct. 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against CorePower Yoga LLC alleging violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that from October 2011 to November 2015, he worked for defendant as unpaid worker and cleaned and performed other project-based work each week in exchange for free membership at the studio. The suit states the program was modified in 2014, wherein plaintiff and class members were then paid hourly wages but were required to apply large portion of their wages toward purchases of discounted memberships, which reduced their hourly pay below the applicable minimum wage.
The plaintiffs hold CorePower Yoga LLC responsible because the defendant allegedly failed to pay minimum wages for all hours worked to all class members, failed to keep accurate or adequate records of hours worked by plaintiffs and forced plaintiff and class members to purchase memberships.
The plaintiffs request a trial by jury and seek unpaid minimum wages, statutory damages, designate plaintiff as class representative and counsel of record as class counsel, interest, attorneys’ fees, costs of the action and other relief as the court deem just. He is represented by Jahan C. Sagafi and Katrina L. Eiland of Outten & Golden LLP in San Francisco and Juno Turner of Outten & Golden LLP in New York.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Case number 3:16-cv-05610