MEMORANDUM & ORDER JVK Operations Limited (“JVK”) and Vinod Samuel (“Samuel”) (collectively “Defendants”) move to decertify the conditionally certified Fair Labor Standard Act (“FLSA”) collective action (the “Decertification Motion”). (See ECF No. 58.) In turn, Kenia Montiel-Flores and Almanelly Rivera Zuniga (the “Named Plaintiffs”) cross-move for final certification of the FLSA collective action and, also, move pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Rule”) 23(a) and (b)(3) for class certification (the “Certification Motion”). (See ECF No. 54.) By Report & Recommendation dated August 1, 2023 (the “R&R”), Magistrate Judge Steven I. Locke recommended the Court: (1) deny Defendants’ Decertification Motion and grant the Named Plaintiffs’ crossmotion for final certification; and (2) grant the Named Plaintiffs’ Certification Motion. (See R&R, ECF No. 67, at 12-27.) For the following reasons, Defendants’ objections to the R&R are OVERRULED, and the R&R is ADOPTED in its entirety. BACKGROUND The Court adopts the relevant factual background stated by Magistrate Judge Locke in his R&R, finding that the R&R accurately summarizes the relevant facts pertinent to this case, which are incorporated herein. (See id. at 3-10.) Similarly, the Court adopts the Magistrate Judge’s recitation of the relevant procedural history, which is also incorporated herein. (Id. at 10-11.) See Sali v. Zwanger & Pesiri Radiology Grp., LLP, No. 19-CV-0275, 2022 WL 819178, at *1 (E.D.N.Y. Mar. 18, 2022) (“[b]ecause neither Plaintiff nor Defendants challenge the Magistrate Judge’s recitation of the facts, and the Court finds no clear error in that recitation, the Court incorporates the ‘Factual Background’ and ‘Procedural Background’ sections of the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation into this Order.”) For the reader’s convenience, however, the Court reiterates the following. I. Facts JVK is a laundromat that provides dry cleaning and laundry services to hospitals and hotels (Am. Compl., ECF No. 35, 9); the Named Plaintiffs worked for Defendant JVK as clothing sorters. (Montiel-Flores Decl., Ex. C, ECF No. 54-4, 3-4, attached to Certification Motion; Zuniga Decl., Ex. D, ECF No. 54-5, attached to Certification Motion.) Samuel is “the Chief Executive Officer of…JVK” and “exercises significant control over the company’s operations and has the authority to hire, fire, and discipline employees, set employees’ work schedules and conditions of employment, determine the rate and method of payment for employees, and maintain employment records.” (Samuel Decl., Ex. 1, ECF No. 58-2,
12-13, attached to Decertification Motion; see also Am. Compl., 10-12.) While employed by Defendants, the Named Plaintiffs, the proposed FLSA Collective Plaintiffs, and the proposed Rule 23 Class Members were all nonexempt employees pursuant to the FLSA, New York Labor Law (“NYLL”), New Jersey Work and Hour Law (“NJWHL”), New Jersey Wage Payment Law (“NJWPL”), and the New Jersey Wage Theft Act (“NJWTA”); as such, each was entitled to minimum wages, overtime compensation and spread of hours pay. (See Am. Compl., 60.) Defendants pay all nonexempt hourly employees a regular hourly rate at or slightly above the applicable state minimum wage rate. (Samuel Tr., ECF No. 54-2, at 53:6-54:14, attached to Certification Motion.) Additionally, Defendants have implemented a timekeeping system which, in pertinent part, tracks the hours of all nonexempt hourly employees at each of Defendants’ New York and New Jersey locations by rounding all nonexempt hourly employees’ punch-in and punch-out times to the nearest quarter of an hour. (Samuel Decl. 16; Samuel Tr. at 74:4-77:18; Zencir Tr., Ex. 10, ECF No. 62-7, 36:20-38:9, attached to Sackowitz Decl.) Specifically, this policy rounds time up or down based on a sevenminute assumption; for example, if the employee punched in more than seven minutes before her start time, the timekeeping system would round back to the nearest quarter of an hour. (Samuel Decl.,
