A state court has denied class certification to a group of unpaid interns seeking back wages from a prominent public relations firm, finding that their employee status must be analyzed individually under New York’s labor code.
In a six-page decision issued Tuesday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Kern said that class certification would not be granted because plaintiffs Kristina Rodriguez and a putative class of interns who worked for 5W Public Relations dating back to 2008 had not shown “that common questions of law or fact predominate over any questions affecting only individual members.”
