MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER I. INTRODUCTION On March 22, 2022, Plaintiff James Pauli commenced this collective and class action against Defendant Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, Inc. See Dkt. No. 1. Plaintiff’s collective action asserts violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), see 29 U.S.C. §201, and his class action claims violations of New York Labor Law (“NYLL”), Art. 19 Section §§650, 191(1), 195(1), 195(3). See Dkt. No. 1. Specifically, Plaintiff claims Defendant misclassified Plaintiff and similarly-situated “Co-Team Leaders” employees as exempt employees, resulting in deprivation of overtime compensation. See id. at 1. On June 27, 2022, Defendant filed an answer denying allegations of unlawful conduct. See Dkt. No. 13 at 1. On July 21, 2022, Magistrate Judge Miroslav Lovric presided over a Rule 16 Initial Conference. See Dkt. No. 16. On August 11, 2022, Defendant moved to change venue from the Northern District of New York to the Middle District of Pennsylvania. See 28 U.S.C. §1404(a); Dkt. No. 17. On September 1, 2022, Plaintiff filed a cross motion for an order of equitable tolling of the FLSA claims for members of the proposed putative collective action. See Dkt. No. 18. The action neither been granted a conditional certification nor a Rule 23 class certification at this time. II. BACKGROUND Defendant is a company headquartered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, operating over 400 stores across twenty-nine states. See Dkt. No. 1 at 11. About forty-nine of those stores are in Pennsylvania and about twenty-eight stores are in New York. See Dkt. No. 17-1 at 7 (citing Dkt. No. 17-3 at 5). Plaintiff is a New York State resident who has been employed at Defendant’s location in Cicero, New York as a “Co-Team Lead” for over eight years. See Dkt. No. 1 at 8. Plaintiff’s collective action alleges Defendant violated the FLSA by misclassifying Co-Team Leaders as exempt rather than nonexempt employees in Defendant’s stores across the nation. See Dkt. No. 1 at 31. Plaintiff alleges he and similarly-situated current and former Co-Team Leaders are “(i) entitled to unpaid wages from Defendant for overtime work for which they did not receive overtime premium pay…and (ii) entitled to liquidated damages.” Id. at 34 (citing 29 U.S.C. §201). Plaintiff defines the proposed collective class as “[a]ll current and former Co-Team Leaders who have worked for Defendant from March 22, 2019 through the date of trial, and elect to opt-in to this action pursuant to the FLSA, 29 U.S.C. §216(b).” Id. at 33. Plaintiff also seeks designation of a class action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“FRCP”) 23. See Dkt. No. 1
