New York Employment Attorneys Blog

A number of lawsuits against banking giant Bank Of America have been consolidated, paving the way for hundred of employees to move forward with their claims that the bank forced employees to unlawfully work unpaid overtime, among other claims.

The suit, filed in Kansas City, combines other lawsuits which have alleged that Bank Of America forced employees to work over 40 hours a week without proper overtime compensation. As well, employees were forced to work without meal breaks or rest periods, in violation of both state and federal statutes against it.

This suit could have potentially huge ramifications for the banking giant and its employees. We will continue to update this case as it progresses.

A number of former cooks and wait staff of New York City restaurant and bar B Bar have come forward to file a lawsuit against their employer, claiming that the restaurant did not follow standards for paying employees overtime.

The restaurant, owned by prominent restaurant and club owner Eric Goode, is a fixture for the hip New York set, frequently drawing celebrities. Goode, who owns a number of other restaurants including locations at the Maritime and Bowery hotels, is named as an individual defendant in this case.

This seems to be a particularly bad year for FLSA violations at restaurants in New York. Is this the work of a beefed up Department of Labor, with more investigators as promised by President Obama? Or are restaurant workers, who historically have worked for low wages and tips, starting to flex their legal rights as more and more suits hit? In either case, it is a promising sign for employees working the restaurant industry, and for the rights of hourly workers everywhere who are routinely denied overtime pay.

In a huge victory for Wal-Mart workers across Massachusetts, the retail giant has elected to settle a class action lawsuit brought by workers. The workers allege, among a list of violations, that Wal-Mart forced workers to work through breaks, did not pay workers overtime, and doctored pay cards to reduce workers salaries without their knowledge.

The settlement will amount to between 800 and 2000 for the workers affected, comprising a group of nearly 80,000 employees who worked at Wal-Mart's in Massachusetts between 1995 through 2005.

This settlement marks a victory for the workers of the company. Wal-Mart is no stranger to these sorts of cases, with a long history of taking advantage of their workers to drive down operating costs. Wal-Mart has long resisted paying their workers fair wages, and have broken up numerous efforts made by workers to organize themselves.

Wal-Mart and their dubious practices towards their employees have been in part thwarted this time. Part of the stipulation of settlement states that neither party comment on the matter further, not allowing for the parties to disclose exactly what happened to bring Wal-Mart to settle.

We here at the Harman Firm encourage any workers, especially those who are employed with Wal-Mart, to examine their practices towards workers before making buying decisions. Companies who repeatedly harass and take advantage of those who can afford it the least are not deserving of your money.

In a startling report issued in early September, the United States Department of Labor released the results of their inquiries into the use of child labor in manufacturing and other areas. The results are staggering- the report had found that child is used throughout the word to produced a number of products and goods.

According to the report, child labor is rampant in the harvesting of many agricultural products such as coffee, cotton, sugarcane and rubber, while "69 percent of child labor worldwide is in agriculture". This is a staggering proportion of children being forced to work to produce goods for our consumption.

Children are often put in much more precarious positions throughout the world, including being use to mine for gold in Burkina Faso and Peru. The report can be found here- . I encourage all of our readers to pay mind to this list and take into consideration the human costs of goods and products we so routinely ignore. While child labor may be legal abroad, we should do as much as we can do rally against such cruel practices and ensure rights for workers everywhere.

The United States Department of Labor released a report sometime last week detailing new efforts to ramp up enforcement of employers who have been violating laws protecting workers from wage and hour violations.

This comes as a welcome move as it seems to be more and more employers are partaking in this illegal practice, cheating workers everywhere out of money that is rightfully owed to them. In New York City alone, there has been dozens of reports in the previous months of nonpayment, failure to pay overtime, and failures to pay minimum wage.

The department of labor is hiring over 250 new investigators to process these claims of violations. This comes after interviews with nearly 4,000 workers resulted in the discovery of violations in almost every field in sector.

While this is good news for employees everywhere, it marks the beginning of the end of a long period of time where workers were routinely taken advantage of and cheated out of proper wages and rights. Hopefully, this will be a turning point in the battle against unfair labor practices and a victory for the rights of low income workers everywhere.

A new study released this week showed some troubling signs for low-income workers. The survey, whose results were published in the New York Times- Low Wage Workers Are Often Cheated, Study Says, found over a 1,000 workers making a median of 10 dollars an hour, found that these workers were extremely likely to have been taken advantage of by their employers. This included working off the clock, not getting proper time off for breaks and meals, as well as not being compensated or granted overtime. On average, this cost workers over 50 dollars from their take home pay, a net loss of around 15% of their total wages. As well, it found that these workers were often pressured unfairly to not take workers compensation when they would be injured on the job, denying them compensation and adequate time off to deal with these injuries sustained. It is terrible that these trends still persist, as laws to protect workers against these violations seem to go unheeded and under-enforced. States should work to inform workers more completely of their rights as employees, and ensure that this vulnerable group has protection against such abuses.

In a class action lawsuit filed in Federal Court this week, famed New York restaurant group Cipriani is under fire for allegedly underpaying workers, withholding wages, and failing to pay proper overtime to numerous workers. The lawsuit is another in the ongoing legal troubles for the group of restaurants, whose owner has not returned to New York for nearly 9 months while living abroad. Numerous other employees have come forward alleging underpayment of wages, and the group has also had trouble with the landlord of the Rainbow Room, where they have recently lost their lease.

This is also another staggering example of the out of control culture of corruption that exists in the New York dining world. It almost isn't even news anymore when a restaurant is found to have systematically taken advantage of its workers, and denying pay and overtime.

Maybe we should start a diner's hall of shame around New York City, alerting diners to the violations found at restaurants around the city and allow them to make decisions based on where workers are treated fairly.

Another week, another set of allegations of wage violations against
restaurants throughout New York City. This time around, 25 workers filed
a complaint against Wu Liang Ye, a group that operates two Chinese
restaurants in Midtown and the Upper East Side. The suit claims that
managers and owners had failed to pay workers for overtime, or even a
minimum wage, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The suit also
alleges management drawing into tips that were meant for delivery staff
and busboys.

The amended complaint goes on to further allege that since the original
complaint was filed in February, management of Wu Liang Ye has retaliated
against workers for complaining and for trying to organize, and that some
employees who have complained have been fired.

This is just another example of management abusing and taking advantage of
employees; most of whom can least afford it. Workers should not have to
take such treatment, and we at the Harman Firm recommend that all workers
who believe have had their pay unfairly docked, or retaliated against come
forward to seek justice.

An interesting decision has been handed down in the 9th Circuit Appellate court out west. The ruling came in a case against the Castaway Casino and Resort Company. The suit alleges that the casino company failed to pay numerous workers during the companies decline into bankruptcy and reorganization. When the employees sued the trustees overseeing the bankruptcy operation, which included mostly company executives, the court found that they were liable along with the company. This ruling may have a widespread effect, as more and more workers are dealing with companies undergoing bankruptcy, with the major effect of letting workers sue the executives in civil courts rather than seeking damages in a bankruptcy court.

Another New York City restaurant has been cited for a variety of wage
violations, following close on the heels of dozens of other restaurants
who have violated Federal and State labor laws. A lawsuit filed by New
York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo alleges that Lemongrass Grill, a
chain of Thai restaurants in downtown Manhattan systematically failed to
pay workers a minimum wage, as well as failed to keep records of hours and
personnel.

An article in the New York Times states that delivery persons would make
as little as 25 dollars for a 10 to 12 hour shift, while kitchen staff
would make as little as 50 dollars for their shifts. This type of
treatment is not only illegal, but borders on the inhumane.

The Harman Firm urges people to boycott the growing list of
restaurants in New York City that prey on workers. The systematic process
of undermining workers' rights should not be tolerated, nor rewarded.

The FLSA's anti-retaliation provision prohibits "discharg[ing] ... any employee because such employee has filed any complaint...." 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3) (emphasis added).

In 1993, the Second Circuit held that the anti-retaliation provision in the FLSA prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for filing formal complaints, instituting a proceeding, or testifying about FLSA violations, but does not encompass verbal complaints made to a supervisor. Lambert v. Genesee Hospital, 10 F.3d 46, 55 (2d Cir.1993)) (citations omitted).

On June 29, 2009, in Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Plastics, the Seventh Circuit followed when it held that, "the natural understanding of the phrase 'file any complaint' requires the submission of some writing to an employer, court, or administrative body."

This week, a New York City based car wash chain was required to pay back wages to employees. The payment, which came to over 3.4 million dollars in back wages and damages, resulted from a lawsuit brought by employees.

Employees claimed serious violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, where the company, Lage Management Company, was found to have not paid employees minimum wage, refused to pay employees over time pay, and did not keep accurate employment records.

An article in the New York Times CityRoom-"Car Wash Chain to Pay $3.4 Million in Back Wages" explores this incident, and shows the perils of the car wash industry and other low-income positions. Low-income workers are often most susceptible to unfair treatment by their employer for a number of reasons. Employees in these positions are vulnerable to unfair treatment by their superiors, may not be aware of the laws that are designed to protect them, and are often afraid to complain about unfair treatment due to their reliance on their income.

Employers who treat their employees in such a way should not be held just accountable for the damages and back wages. Rather, we feel that these acts border on criminal in the same way individuals like Bernie Madoff have fleeced investors, if not worse. Criminal sentences for such flagrant violations should be instituted to ensure that these repeat offenders will definitely learn from their heinous treatment of employees, and help protect employees rights.

On July 1, 2009, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a $1.125 million settlement with the owners and former owners of two Brooklyn-based supermarkets for underpayment of their workers as well as other violations of New York State labor laws.

The AG's office filed a lawsuit against the Associated and Pioneer supermarkets after their investigation found that employees at the stores were not paid proper wages. At both supermarkets, baggers had been paid no wages at all and had to rely solely on tips for income. In addition, delivery workers at the supermarkets often worked 70-hour weeks but were not paid minimum wage nor were they paid time and a half for overtime. Many other supermarket employees had also worked in excess of 40 hours per week, but were not paid overtime wages.

Under the terms of the settlement, the supermarket owners will pay restitution to over 50 of their employees for unpaid wages totaling $1,125,000, in addition to the penalties that will be paid to the State of New York. Each worker covered by the agreement will get about $20,000.

In a separate criminal action, the two owners of the Associated Supermarket pleaded guilty to failure to pay wages and failure to maintain payroll records, both misdemeanors. Each received a one-year suspended sentence and must comply with a deal to surrender payroll and time records to the Attorney General's Office on the first of each month for five years to ensure compliance.

See: 2 Bushwick Supermarkets Settle Labor Charges

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.

A group of hospitals in the Albany region have recently agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by nurses. The deal, described in a NY Times article published March 9th seeks to settle a claim brought by the nurses who said hospitals had conspired together to keep nurses for wages down in the area.

Per the agreement, the nurses will receive $1.25 million dollars and prohibits the hospitals from sharing wage information of the nurses with any other hospitals operating in the area. Statements from the hospital admit no wrongdoing stemming from settling, and stated that they decided to settle the case to "preserve scarce resources" from going to waste.

A statement from the SEIU claimed this was a victory, and that "for too long, hospitals cut corners when it came to valuing the hard work of nurses", with many advocacy groups and nurses stating that the suppression of wages for nurses has further increased the shortage of nurses throughout the country.

The settlement also opens up new options for nurses who are currently awaiting similar trials in other states. The settlement allows for the lawyers for the nurses in this group access to nurses at other hospitals in the area to further explore claims of wage suppression and conspiracy.