Free Motion for Protective Order - District Court of California - California

Case 3:07-cv-02178-W-AJB

Document 22-3

Filed 04/18/2008

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1 SEYFARTH SHAW LLP
Samuel T. McAdam (SBN 186084)
2 Brandon R. McKelvey (SBN 217002)

Anthony J. Musante (SBN 252097)
3 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2350

Sacramento, California 95814-4428
4 Telephone: (916) 448-0159

Facsimile: (916) 558-4839
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Attorneys for Defendants 6 SPHERION ATLANTIC ENTERPRISES LLC
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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PHILIP J. MARTINT, Individually, On Behalf of All Others Similarly Situated, and on Behalf of the General Public,
Plaintiff,
v.

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Case No. 07 CV 2178 W (AJB)

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DECLARATION OF JOAN L. ORZO IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR A PROTECTIVE ORDER UNDER FEDERAL RULE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE 26(c)
Date: Time: Courtroom: Judge:
May 16, 2008 10:00am A - First Floor

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SPHERION ATLANTIC ENTERPRISES LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability
Company; and DOES 1 through 50,

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inclusive,
Defendant.

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Hon. Anthony J. Battaglia

18 I, Joan L. Orzo, declare:
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1.

I am a human resources manager for Spherion Atlantic Enterprises LLC. I have
the facts set forth in this declaration and if called as a witness, I would

20 personal knowledge of

21 and could testify to the trth of these matters.
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2.

I am employed by Spherion Atlantic Enterprises LLC and work out of Dallas,

23 Texas. I have been employed by the company since 1992. I am currently a human resources
24 manager for the staffing services unit of

the company.

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3.

As a corporate human resources manger, I manage employee relations and

26 support field operations throughout the company including Spherion Atlantic's staffing services

27 operations in California. In that capacity, my curent duties include providing management
28 support and guidance on employee relations policies and procedures. I am familiar with
DECLARATION OF JOAN L. ORZO IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR A PROTECTIVE ORDER
SC I 17092566. I / 34991-000232

Case 3:07-cv-02178-W-AJB

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1 Spherion's business structure and with its business operations, policies, and practices in
2 California. I am also generally familiar with the clientele and industries Spherion serves, and the

3 maner in which Spherion conducts business in the United States and California.
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4.

Spherion is a staffing company that provides job assignents to thousands of

5 individuals in California and throughout the United States and Canada. Spherion recruits and

6 hires individuals and assigns them to businesses, governent agencies, non-profit entities, and
7 other organizations throughout the country under a variety of different contracts and service

8 agreements. Spherion supplies recruits to almost every industry imaginable including retail,
9 healthcare, construction, legal services, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, commercial and

10 residential real estate, insurance, mortgage and loan, automotive, plumbing, financial services

1 1 and baning, securities, consumer credit, engineering, waste collection, education, public

12 utilities, airline, cable and internet, media, business services, packaging and shipping, food
13 services, beverage and wine, bottling, computers and electronics, entertainment and motion

14 picture, transportation, travel and hotel, agriculture, marketing and advertising,

15 telecommunications, publishing, internet, information technology, charitable and religious,

16 military, county and city governent, and numerous state agencies.
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5.

Spherion recruits provide a wide range of services including general labor and

18 production work, administrative and offce support, managerial and professional work, and
19 skilled, technical and scientific work. Some recruits perform highly-paid professional services,
20 others perform more general office/administrative support services, and yet others perform

21 manual labor. Spherion recruits may support or supplement regular workforces; provide

22 assistance in special work situations such as employee absences, skill shortages, and seasonal
23 workloads; or perform special assignents or projects. Assignents or projects last anywhere

24 from a few hours to multiple days, weeks, months, or even years.
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6.

The duties and working conditions of Spherion recruits vary according to the

26 account and project to which they are assigned. Some flex employees are employed on a long27 term basis. Other Spherion employees work far shorter assignents for many clients.

28 Spherion's full-time associates are not placed with other companies at all, but work for Spherion
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SC1 17092566.1/34991-000232 Case No. 07 CV 2178 W (AJB)

DECLARA T10N OF JOAN L. ORZO IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT'S MOT10N FOR A PROTECTIVE ORDER

Case 3:07-cv-02178-W-AJB

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1 directly and perform daily managerial or administrative tasks related to Spherion's internal
2 operations.
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7.

Spherion has hundreds of offices throughout the United States with multiple

4 offices in California. Some offices are operated by Spherion directly and service a number of
5 clients in a particular area. Other offces are on the premises of a paricular client's offce, where

6 Spherion only services that particular client. Yet other offces are run by franchisees or licensees
7 of Spherion. Spherion licensees have and manage their own offce employees, while Spherion

8 provides support and management for temporary staff recruited and placed by the licensee.
9 Spherion franchisees on the other hand manage and control both their on-site offce staff as well

10 as the temporary staff recruited and placed by the franchisee.
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8.

Although Spherion has general policies, many of Spherion' s policies are

12 customized or modified at the local branch offices or by the franchisees or licensees. These

13 policies are further modified and customized for individual clients, their customers, and various
14 projects. Actual procedures and practices vary widely from office to office, client to client, and

15 proj ect to proj ect.
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9.

Spherion serves thousands of clients in California. Although Spherion has some

17 longstanding clients, there is a high rate of attrition among a portion of Spherion' s clientele as

18 businesses and organizations come and go or sporadically use Spherion's services. Spherion's
19 clientele and the assignents it recruits for changes on a daily basis.

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10.

Spherion has contractual agreements with many of its clients that govern the

21 employment and working conditions of Spherion personneL. These contractual agreements often
22 involve multiple parties when, for example, Spherion provides staffing for the customers' of a

23 client. Working conditions, procedures, and practices for Spherion personnel vary by client and
24 client's customer and depend on the nature of

the relationship between Spherion, its clients, and

25 the clients' customers. Some clients require that their own procedures or their customers'

26 procedures affecting employees be utilized, while others follow Spherion's general policies.

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11.

Spherion is a multifaceted business with a multi-layered organizational structure.

28 Spherion has two primary business units/divisions - Staffing Services and Professional Services. -3-

SC1 17092566.1 /34991-000232 Case No. 07 CV 2178 W (AJB)

DECLARATION OF JOAN L. ORZO IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR A PROTECTIVE ORDER

Case 3:07-cv-02178-W-AJB

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1 Recently Spherion has acquired several businesses and these units/divisions have splintered into
2 multiple divisions or groups. Within the Staffing Services unit there are multiple employee

3 classifications with hundreds of different job titles. Within each classification and job title there
4 are employees performing a wide range of activities and duties in a variety of different industries
5 for a variety of different clients. There are so many different types of jobs that Spherion recruits

6 perform that their job titles often do not adequately describe their position in a meaningful way.
7 The job duties of a Spherion employee are highly dependent on individual client and customer

8 needs.
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12.

My understanding is that Plaintiff

Philip Martinet's assignent and employment

10 was very unique. Plaintiff

was recruited by Spherion's Professional Services out of a branch

11 office in San Diego. Plaintiff was recruited as a PC Technician.
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13.

Spherion recruits many individuals for special assignents that have unique

13 duties, operations, and practices. For example, Spherion might recruit for an administrative or

14 clerical position for a hospital in the healthcare industry. Typically a Client Services Supervisor
15 ("CSS") at a local branch would recruit the individuaL. These types of assignments are often of a
16 short duration - for one day to a couple of weeks. Branch personnel would act as the immediate

17 supervisor, oversee the employee's assignent, and parer with the client in regard to
18 the supervision and management on a flex employee's day-to-day performance. This type of

19 employee would typically be subject to branch-specific policies, but the employee may also be
20 subject to the client's individual practices and procedures. The nature of

the employee's

21 orientation and training and the type of documents given to the employee would depend on the
22 duration of

the assignent, the type of client, and nature ofthe project. Documentation related

23 to the employee's assignent, hours, and working conditions would be primarily kept by

24 Spherion at the local branch offce. After completing his or her assignent, this employee may

25 never work for Spherion again or may be reassigned to the same project, a similar project for a
26 different client, or a dissimilar project for a different client in a different industry.
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Another example would be a Spherion employee who is recruited for a customer

28 service position for a call center in the consulting industry. This employee might be recruited by -4-

SC1 17092566.1 /34991-000232 Case No. 07 CV 2178 W (AJB)

DECLARATION OF JOAN L. ORZO IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR A PROTECTIVE ORDER

Case 3:07-cv-02178-W-AJB

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1 Spherion personnel working on-site at the client's place of

business. This type of assignent

2 would typically last multiple weeks. Spherion's on-site personnel would act as the immediate
3 supervisor and oversee the employee's assignent along with the client providing input on day-

4 to-day performance. This type of employee would typically go through a site/client-specific

5 orientation and would often be subject to customized policies and site-specific practices and

6 procedures as dictated by the client. Documents related to the employee's assignent, hours,
7 and working conditions may be kept by Spherion's on-site personnel or at the client's place of
8 business.

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15.

The location of various employee handbooks, human resources documentation,

10 and procedures varies from offce to offce, division to division, client to client, and project to

11 project. For example, some personnel fies are kept at the local branch offce while others are
12 kept on a specific worksite with a project or account manager. There have been thousands of

13 different projects staffed by Spherion recruits over the last several years and gathering all the 14 policies and procedures, employee handbooks, and other documents related to each project
15 would be a gargantuan task that would involve hundreds of

people and thousands ofSpherion's

16 clients. As further described below, the total man-hour expenditure would be 24,800 hours and

17 the total expense would exceed $550,000.

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16.

I have reviewed plaintiffs first set of

interrogatories and document requests and

19 am familiar with the requests plaintiff

is making. Interrogatories Number 4,5,6, and 7 ask

20 defendant to identify all differences in its meal break policies for employees with different job
21 duties and job titles. Document Request Number 4 and 6 (erroneously numbered 6 instead of 5)

22 asks defendant to produce all documents pertaining to these differences. Document Requests
23 Number 11 and 12 asks for all documents generally pertaining to meal and rest period policies.
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17.

Document Request Number 3 asks defendant to produce documents that

25 demonstrate its "California-based non-exempt employees, other than PLAINTIFF, have been
26 provided with state-mandated 30-minute meal breaks from September 2003 to the present."

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18.

Interrogatories Number 8,9, 10, and 11 ask defendant to identify all differences in
job duties and

28 its overtime payment policies for employees with different

job titles. Document

-5DECLARATION OF JOAN L. ORZO IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR A PROTECTIVE ORDER

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1 Request Number 7 and 8 asks defendant to produce all documents pertaining to these differences
2 and Document Request Number 13 asks for all documents pertaining to overtime compensation.
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19.

Document Request Number 10 asks defendant to produce any and all employee

4 handbooks that it distributed to its "California-based non-exempt employees that were in force
5 and effect from September 2003 to the present."

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20.

Interrogatories Number 12 and 13 ask defendant to identify all payroll systems

7 used to pay Spherion recruits from September 2003 to the present.

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21.

Document Request Number 15, 16, and 17 ask for all documents relating to any

9 training Spherion gave to recruits from January 1, 2003 to the present pertaining to meal periods,

10 rest periods, and overtime.
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22.

Document Request Number 18, 19,20, and 21 ask for all documents pertaining to

12 "studies" defendant has done since January 1, 2003 pertaining to meal periods, rest periods, and

13 overtime.
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23.

To identify, review and gather all the different policies, procedures, handbooks,

15 training materials, and other documents requested by plaintiff for thousands of employees with
16 hundreds of different job duties and titles would require a tremendous amount of work. An

17 inquiry would have to be made as to each client to determine the policies, practices, and
18 procedures in operation on each individual project and assignent. To accomplish this task

19 would require at least a three-step process and would require the involvement of at least three
20 Spherion employees, not to mention the likely involvement of

the client and/or its customers.

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24.

The first step would involve a human-resources ("HR") manager such as myself

22 initiating contact with each branch office, licensee, or franchisee. The HR manager would have
23 to communicate the nature and scope of the requests to each branch or office manager in

24 California. The HR manager would then work with the branch or office manager at each
25 location to identify the steps necessary to obtain the requested information.
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The next step would require a branch manager, with the help of a branch-level

27 employee (such as a Client Services Supervisor ("CSS"J) to generate a list of clients and

28 accounts for the time period in question and to search for any responsive documents kept at the
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SC1 17092566.1/34991-000232 Case No. 07 CV 2178 W (AJB)

DECLARATION OF JOAN L. ORZO IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR A PROTECT1VE ORDER

Case 3:07-cv-02178-W-AJB

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1 branch offce level, such as contracts, statements of

work, and handbooks. Computers and hard-

2 copy files for hundreds of customers would have to be searched and responsive documents

3 would have to be copied or printed off computers.
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26.

The third step would require at least one CSS employee at each office location to

5 inquire as to the policies, procedures, and practices applicable to each client/customer cite and/or

6 each project or assignent. This would often require the CSS to reach out to the client directly
7 to determine (a) what policies, procedures, and practices were observed on various projects and

8 assignents and (b) what documents, if any, the client retained related to policies, procedures,

9 and working conditions. In some instances, customers of the client may have to be contacted and
10 asked to search for information and/or documents. Whatever information was gathered during

11 this step, would have to be organized and sent to the HR manager for review.
12

27.

Each of the above steps will vary depending on the customer and the nature of

13 the assignent. I estimate on average that an HR manager would spend 8 hours per each office

14 location that it contacted as part of step one of this process. It is my understanding that there are
15 over 50 offce locations in California and an approximate salary for a typical HR Manager is $41

16 per hour. Thus, I would estimate the first step would take up to 400 hours and cost Spherion
17 over $16,000.

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28.

I estimate on average that an offce/branch manager would spend 8 hours as part

19 of overseeing the investigation and discovery involved with step two. It is my understanding that
20 there are over 50 office locations in California and an approximate salary for a typical branch

21 offce manager is $34 per hour. Thus, I would estimate the second step would take up to 400

22 hours and cost Spherion over $13,000.
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29.

I estimate on average that a branch CSS employee would spend 8 hours per client

24 to search for information and documents as part of step number 3. It is my understanding that
25 there are over 3,000 clients in California and an approximate salary for a typical CSS employee

26 is $22 per hour. Thus, I would estimate the third step would take up to 24,000 hours (or roughly
27 480 hours for each CSS) and cost Spherion approximately $528,000.

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-7DECLARATION OF JOAN L. ORZO IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR A PROTECTIVE ORDER

SC1 17092566.1 /34991-000232 Case No. 07 CV 2178 W (AJB)

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1

30.

The above estimates could easily be overrn because in many instances it wil

2 likely be more difficult and wil

likely take longer to locate documents. In situations where an

3 assignent or project only lasted one day or in situations where a short-term assignent
4 occurred several years ago, it may be very challenging to find documents and information related

5 to that assignent. It may take several hours of investigation to find a particular client's contact

6 information or the particular service contract or work order that applied to such a project. The
7 recent acquisitions of several companies and the splintering of Spherion' s business
8 units/divisions will also likely create untold problems. Other difficulties will likely surface

9 including: client businesses that are no longer operating, employees or managers who have

10 contact information regarding clients but are no longer employed with Spherion, and documents

11 or data that have been archived and are not easily accessible.
12 I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the
13 foregoing is true and correct. Executed on April ,to, 2008, in \Ja. \ \o.S , Texas.

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SC1 17092566.1/34991-000232 Case No. 07 CV 2178 W (AJB)

DECLARATION OF JOAN L. ORZO IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR A PROTECTIVE ORDER