Taylor

I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

This wage-and-hour class action was filed by Plaintiff Bill Taylor against Defendants Cox Communications California, LLC and Cox Communications, Inc. (together, "Defendants") in Santa Barbara Superior Court in 2012. (Dkt. 1-3 ["FAC"].) Most of the litigation proceeded in state court and, on March 4, 2016, the state court granted Plaintiff's motion for class certification. (Dkt. 10-6.) Shortly after, on March 21, 2016, Defendants removed the case to this Court.

In his FAC, Plaintiff alleges causes of action for violations of a number of sections of the California Labor Code, as well as unfair business practices under California Unfair Competition Law, Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 . ( See generally FAC.) Essentially, Plaintiff argues that Cox systematically underpaid its field technicians-employees who travel to customers' residences to install and repair television and internet services. ( Id. ¶ 10 .)

The certified class that Plaintiff represents is a class of Defendants' field technicians who participated in a program called "Home Start." 1 The Home Start program allows field technicians to keep their company vehicles at home-as opposed to the…