Contract analysis

1. I am an attorney at law duly admitted and licensed to practice before all courts of the State of California, State Bar No. 301462. I am a Senior Associate at the law firm of Calderwood & Harkness LLP, located at 777 South Flower Street, Suite 4200, Los Angeles, California 90017. I am one of the attorneys of record for Defendant Aurelius Media Americas Inc. ("AMA") in this consolidated class action. I make this dec

2. I submit this declaration in support of AMA's Opposition to Plaintiffs' Motion for Class Certification, which is being filed concurrently herewith on June 16, 2023. The purpose of this declaration is to authenticate and identify the exhibits attached to AMA's Opposition and to the concurrently filed declarations of Lorraine Okafor (Senior Vice President, Human Resources), Celine Arroyo (Director of Production Oper

3. Attached hereto as Exhibit A is a true and correct copy of the relevant excerpts from the Aurelius Media Americas Inc. Employee Handbook, most recently revised in March 2021. Specifically, the excerpts attached consist of Section 4.3 (Meal Periods), Section 4.4 (Rest Periods), and Section 4.7 (Timekeeping). Section 4.3 of the Employee Handbook provides that all non-exempt employees are entitled to an uninterrupted

4. Attached hereto as Exhibit B is a true and correct copy of AMA's standalone Meal and Rest Break Policy, which has been in effect since January 1, 2019. This standalone policy supplements the general provisions contained in the Employee Handbook described above and provides more detailed guidance to supervisors and employees regarding the scheduling of meal and rest breaks, compliance procedures, and the procedures

5. Attached hereto as Exhibit C are true and correct copies of the NovaPay Solutions Inc. ("NovaPay") TimeTrack Pro system configuration records for AMA's seven California production facilities. NovaPay Solutions Inc. is located at 2200 Powell Street, Suite 600, Emeryville, California 94608, and has served as AMA's payroll processor and electronic timekeeping system provider since January 1, 2019. These records were

6. Attached hereto as Exhibit D are true and correct copies of the historical activation and deactivation logs for the Missed Meal Attestation feature within the NovaPay TimeTrack Pro system, broken down by each of AMA's seven California facilities. These logs were produced by NovaPay Solutions Inc. pursuant to the same third-party subpoena referenced in Paragraph 5, above. The logs confirm the following activation s

7. Attached hereto as Exhibit E is a true and correct copy of a summary table prepared from NovaPay TimeTrack Pro data showing the Missed Meal Attestation usage rates at the four California facilities where the feature was activated during the class period (November 1, 2018 through October 31, 2023, as modified in the parties' stipulation regarding the operative class period). The usage rates reflect the percentage o

8. Attached hereto as Exhibit F is a true and correct copy of a summary data extract from the NovaPay TimeTrack Pro system showing distributions of shift lengths, measured in hours, for all AMA non-exempt hourly employees across the seven California facilities and the fourteen (14) show units that operated during the class period. The data demonstrates statistically significant variation in shift lengths across show

9. Attached hereto as Exhibit G is a true and correct copy of a summary data extract from the NovaPay TimeTrack Pro system showing overtime frequency, measured as the percentage of shifts exceeding eight (8) hours, broken down by each of AMA's fourteen (14) show units during the class period. The data demonstrates wide variation in overtime frequency across show units, further supporting AMA's position that working c

10. Attached hereto as Exhibit H are true and correct copies of sample production schedules, in the form of daily call sheets, from four representative AMA show units during the class period. The four representative show units and their associated facilities are as follows: • Studio-based show ("Kitchen Clash") — Facility 1, West Hollywood • Field-based show ("Summit Challenge") — coordinated from Facility 4, Burbank

11. Attached hereto as Exhibit I are true and correct copies of excerpted pages from the deposition transcript of named plaintiff Marisol Fuentes, taken on May 2, 2023, at the offices of Calderwood & Harkness LLP, 777 South Flower Street, Suite 4200, Los Angeles, California 90017. The deposition was taken in the ordinary course of discovery in this action. Among the key testimony excerpted in Exhibit I: (a) Ms. Fuent

12. Attached hereto as Exhibit J are true and correct copies of excerpted pages from the deposition transcript of named plaintiff Derek Halloran, taken on May 9, 2023, at the offices of Calderwood & Harkness LLP. Among the key testimony excerpted in Exhibit J: (a) Mr. Halloran testified that he worked at the Hollywood facility (Facility 5) in the Post-Production/Digital Content Division from June 1, 2020 through Nove

13. Attached hereto as Exhibit K are true and correct copies of excerpted pages from the deposition transcript of named plaintiff Yesenia Padilla, taken on May 16, 2023, at the offices of Calderwood & Harkness LLP. Among the key testimony excerpted in Exhibit K: (a) Ms. Padilla testified that she worked at the Burbank facility (Facility 4) in the Live Events Division from January 10, 2018 through May 17, 2022. (b) Ms

14. Attached hereto as Exhibit L are true and correct copies of excerpted pages from the deposition transcript of Lorraine Okafor, who was designated as AMA's Person Most Knowledgeable on the topics of timekeeping practices and meal and rest break policies. Ms. Okafor's deposition was taken on May 4, 2023, at the offices of Calderwood & Harkness LLP. Among the key testimony excerpted in Exhibit L: (a) Ms. Okafor conf

15. Attached hereto as Exhibit M are true and correct copies of excerpted pages from the deposition transcript of Celine Arroyo, who was designated as AMA's Person Most Knowledgeable on the topics of production scheduling and staffing. Ms. Arroyo's deposition was taken on May 11, 2023, at the offices of Calderwood & Harkness LLP. Among the key testimony excerpted in Exhibit M: (a) Ms. Arroyo confirmed that there is s

16. Attached hereto as Exhibit N are true and correct copies of excerpted pages from the deposition transcript of Karen Fong, AMA's Payroll Manager, taken on May 18, 2023, at the offices of Calderwood & Harkness LLP. Among the key testimony excerpted in Exhibit N: (a) Ms. Fong provided detailed technical testimony regarding the operation of the NovaPay TimeTrack Pro automatic meal period deduction mechanism and AMA's

17. Attached hereto as Exhibit O is a true and correct copy of the Expert Report of Dr. Rajesh Makhija of Workforce Dynamics Consulting LLC, located at 444 Castro Street, Suite 800, Mountain View, California 94041, dated May 19, 2023. Dr. Makhija's report is submitted concurrently with his declaration, which is filed separately in support of AMA's Opposition. Dr. Makhija's report presents an industrial and organizati

18. Attached hereto as Exhibit P is a true and correct copy of the Expert Report of Dr. Catherine Lindstrom of Hargrove Analytics Inc., located at 515 S. Figueroa Street, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, California 90071, dated June 9, 2023. Dr. Lindstrom's report is submitted concurrently with her declaration, which is filed separately in support of AMA's Opposition. Dr. Lindstrom's report presents a rebuttal to the damages

19. Attached hereto as Exhibit Q is a true and correct copy of a summary of the formal employee complaints regarding meal or rest break issues received by AMA's Human Resources Department during the class period (November 1, 2018 through the date of this declaration). The summary reflects that a total of fourteen (14) formal complaints were received from non-exempt employees during this period, spanning five (5) of A

20. In connection with this litigation, AMA has produced a total of 147,832 documents, comprising approximately 1.2 million pages, through its e-discovery vendor, Marlowe Asset Management Litigation Technology Inc., located at 600 Anton Boulevard, Suite 900, Costa Mesa, California 92626. Plaintiffs have produced 3,412 documents in discovery. The parties have completed a total of eighteen (18) depositions — eleven (11