GKN Wins Decertifications of Two Classes in Wage Theft Suit

GKN Driveline North America Inc. won its bid to decertify two classes in a wage theft suit because the claims required too much individualized evidence to resolve.

James Mebane and Angela Worsham filed the suit in 2018 against GKN, a British auto and aerospace component maker. They alleged the company’s policies of rounding time entries and automatically deducting meal breaks from wages when employees worked through them led to unfairly deducted wages. The plaintiffs sought two represent two classes, one for each policy.

The Middle District of North Carolina had conditionally certified the classes in November 2020, but said after ...