Does I thru XXIII v. Advanced Textile Corp.

This case requires us to decide whether the named plaintiffs in a Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., collective action may, in the caption of their complaint, use pseudonyms in place of their true names. Plaintiffs in this case are foreign garment workers on the island of Saipan. They used fictitious names in their complaint because they fear that, if their identities are disclosed to defendants and other nonparties to this action, they will be fired from their jobs, deported from Saipan, and arrested and imprisoned by the People’s Republic of China. The district court dismissed the action with leave to amend the complaint to state plaintiffs’ true names. .We have jurisdiction under *1063 the collateral order doctrine, and we reverse. We hold that where, as here, the named plaintiffs in a Fair Labor Standards Act collective action demonstrate that they have an objectively reasonable fear of extraordinarily severe retaliation, they may conceal their identities from defendants at least until the district court rules on plaintiffs’ motion for court-ordered notice to potential class members, 2 and potential class members have been given an opportunity to join the…