New York Employment Attorneys Blog

The New York Post has reported on the case of John Vendikos, who has recently been let go from his position as bartender at the New York Yankee's Stadium Club. The seventy three year old man has been serving drinks at Yankee stadium for almost 27 years, and was shocked to find out that he was no longer welcome when the Yanks made their move to their new home.

Vendikos, who had poured cocktails for the likes of Joe Dimaggio and other Yankee greats, was asked to re-interview for his position when the club made their move across the street in the Bronx. When he showed up for his interview, the interviewer was dismissive, stating, "Why should I hire you? You're old". Thinking it was a joke after his long tenure of service, Vendikos eventually found out he was not hired and passed over for his old job.

The Yankees deny any claim of age discrimination, stating that they are committed to hiring employees of all ages. This claim can't help the struggling organization that has received hit after hit in the public relations department upon opening the new stadium in April. From outrageously expensive tickets, broken and non-functioning equipment and other stutters. Most serious is this latest charge, showing that age discrimination is still a part of the workplace, and will likely only become more rampant with the tightening job market.

The New York Press recently published an amusing, if not dramatic look at the dark realities of trying to collect unemployment in New York City. On his experience dealing with the sheer bureaucracy of the system, Daniel McCarthy writes:

"Many collecting benefits never visit the Department of Labor in Manhattan, but after a recent lapse in payment, I was told it was mandatory that I come to the downtown offices located on Varick Street to sort out the matter. Offices run by the state are notoriously difficult to deal with-or at the very least make the customer service representatives for online gambling sites seem warm and caring in comparison-and now I see why. Actual interaction with certain temperaments at the Department of Labor's downtown digs is something straight out of Kafka's The Trial."

The article goes on to describe the labyrinthine process of going down to the Unemployment Office just to reach someone on the phone. Do you have any crazy unemployment experiences, or have been given the run around by the system? Let us know in the comments below.

A report released on May 14th found that retail prices had stayed relatively level, with consumers paying less for food and energy costs in the month of April. This is relatively good news in keeping the risk of inflation at bay.

Consumers are looking at lower prices on goods through the summer, with fuel costing significantly less than last summer's high price of $145 a barrel, potentially spurring American's to make travel plans through the season. Many people were adversely affected by skyrocketing gas prices last summer, which climbed near $4 a gallon.

However, the lower prices reflect a drop in demand, showing that demand for consumer goods could remain weak throughout the year- bad news for retailers hoping to woo customers in with lower prices and sales.

New York State is set to extend coverage of unemployment benefits, as State lawmakers announced last week. The vote today ensured that over 100,000 New Yorkers would continue to receive unemployment benefits after they were previously scheduled to run out at the end of the month.

The extension, drawing on over $645 million dollars in Federal Funds designed to help unemployment, is aimed at helping those that have been collecting unemployment for over a year, while the rest of the money is geared towards solving the gap between funds and budgetary restrictions in the unemployment programs.

The decision to apply these funds came after lawmakers could not agree on a way in which to fix the unemployment program in New York State.

However, the extension of these benefits come at a difficult time, with some wondering what good extending benefits will be as more new employees are added to unemployment rolls. Many say that by extending unemployment further, people will be less likely to seek out work and get comfortable with their unemployment payments.

The Obama administration is also pushing for changes to the unemployment laws, stating that states can qualify for unemployment when their state rate goes above 6.5 percent. Obama also wants states to process unemployment for people who move out of state to follow a spouse for job related reasons, or for people who must leave work to take care of elderly and sick relatives. The expansion of these benefits is good news to individuals who fall under these difficult circumstances.

The Government reported another increase in those receiving first time unemployment aid last week, as new rounds of cuts from the faltering automotive industry sends more people looking for benefits. Following Chrysler's bankruptcy announcement on April 30th, more than 27,000 workers at plants around the country had been let go. After this announcement, the automotive company planed to cut nearly 25% of its dealers, prompting economists to worry further about the effect Chrysler's bankruptcy will have on American unemployment figures.

As well, GM announced this morning that they plan on cutting over 1100 dealerships. This massive cut is expected to affect an even larger sample of people, compared with Chrysler's 639 dealer closings. With letters going out this morning as to their closing, this move is expected to have an even greater adverse effect on the unemployment rolls, with cuts in sales, maintenance and more.

This conflicting view of unemployment figures- rates have raised to the highest levels, but the total number of new claims are down from their highs in January. The fate of the automotive industry is a harbinger of employment news, and demonstrates the current shakiness of the economy.

Parlor Steakhouse, a well-received restaurant on the Upper East Side, is party to another lawsuit by employees claiming that the restaurant had withheld wages that fell below minimum wage, and pooling the tips of servers.

The complaint, filed on April 28th, alleges that the Parlor Restaurant violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by paying a wage under the required minimum. This is just another in the long line of restaurants that have taken advantage of the particular situation waiters are often put in. The FLSA states that tipped employees can make no less than $2.13/ an hour, and must receive over time for all hours worked over 40 hours.

Other restaurants have been taken to court over these violations, ranging from Justin Timberlake's Southern Hospitality, to Nobu, Saigon Grill and many other area restaurants. The particular nature of the server pay structure makes it ripe for abuse. If you feel that you have been cheated out of tips or paid unfairly, contact an attorney today.

In an extremely interesting article found on the ABA website, some Fordham law students compiled a digital dossier of the Justice's personal information after the conservative Justice made some public comments questioning the need for stricter privacy controls online.

Led by law professor Joel Ridenburgh, the students collected a massive amount of personal data on Scalia, creating a"15-page dossier that included not only Scalia's home address, home phone number and home value, but his food and movie preferences, his wife's personal e-mail address and photos of his grandchildren"

Confronted with this amount of data, Scalia was fuming at this exercise, clearly unaware of his early comments regarding the need for privacy controls. As more and more individuals use the internet every day for more and more purposes, we are leaking data everywhere allowing careful internet users to create these digital profiles of individuals. When you visit a website, be more aware of what data they are asking for, and for what purposes.