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Rainbow Group v. Johnson3/4/1999
Appellants, Rainbow Group, Ltd. and Alan Sager (collectively, "Rainbow Group"), bring this interlocutory appeal of an order certifying a class, represented by Josephine Johnson and others, of former and current hairstylists employed by Rainbow Group at the company's Supercuts stores. Class members allege that Rainbow Group breached the hairstylists' oral employment contracts by preventing them from clocking in during hours for which they were scheduled to work and refusing to pay them for attendance at mandatory store meetings. In six points of error, Rainbow Group charges the trial court with abuse of its discretion in (1) finding that the class is so numerous that joinder of all individual members is impracticable; (2) finding the required commonality necessary for maintenance of a class; (3) finding that the claims of the representative parties are typical of the claims of the class; (4) finding the named parties to be adequate representatives of the class; (5) finding that common questions of fact and law predominate; and (6) finding class certification to be a superior method of adjudicating the controversy. We will affirm the order of the trial court.
BACKGROUND
The underlying cause of action involves Rainbow Group's alleged breach of the employment contracts held by current and former hairstylists employed at Rainbow Group's Supercuts stores. Rainbow Group owns and operates a chain of hair care salons in several cities in Texas, including Abilene, Austin, San Angelo, and Tyler. Members of the hairstylist class claim that Rainbow Group failed to pay for all hours hairstylists were scheduled for work and required to be on the premises. In particular, the class members complain that (1) they were often prevented from "clocking in" at their scheduled work times if the stores were not sufficiently busy; and (2) they were not paid for attendance at mandatory employee meetings.
All hairstylists were employed on an at-will basis under individual, oral employment contracts. Although Rainbow Group did not provide a standard written employment contract, Supercuts had one employee manual, one employee orientation form and one set of employment policies applicable to all hairstylists. The Supercuts employee manual refers to Rainbow Group's clocking-in policy as follows:
Time Cards Clocking in and Out is Mandatory!
Time cards are used as a means of accurately recording hours worked and calculating pay. They record regular hours worked, meal periods, overtime, absences, vacations and tips. Accordingly, employees should record the time they begin and end each work day, the beginning and end of each meal period, and the beginning and end of any split shift.
The dispute between Rainbow Group and the hairstylists involves alleged underpayment during 1988 and subsequent years. Members of the hairstylist class contend that store managers systematically refused to allow hairstylists to clock in at the beginning of their scheduled shifts, or after they had returned from lunch if there were not enough customers in the store. They allege that hairstylists had to wait on the premises, off the clock, until there were enough customers desiring hair cuts to justify paying the hairstylists' wages. The named plaintiffs, as well as the class as a whole, include hairstylists who sometimes acted as shift managers. Class members allege that they are entitled to compensation for the hours they were "held off the clock" and for hours they attended mandatory store meetings and were not paid.
Rainbow Group denies that there existed a policy to hold hairstylists off the clock and asserts that its policy was to pay hairstylists for attending all mandatory
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