New York Employment Lawyer

UBS TECHNICAL SUPPORT CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT

bschaffer — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:00:05 +0000

UBS, one of the world’s largest financial services companies has agreed to pay $1.4 million to resolve an unpaid overtime class action. The case was brought on behalf of computer technicians who alleged they were paid a salary, and were misclassified as exempt employees, thus entitling them to unpaid overtime. Generally, computer help desk or computer customer service employees are entitled to be paid overtime, while programmers and code-writers are not. Many help desk or customer service employees are required to spend many hours working from home, or on smartphones at all hours of the night, responding to emergencies. Employees should be aware that if they bring a case for unpaid wages, they are protected against retaliation by their employer. For more information regarding employees being entitled to overtime, please contact Fitapelli & Schaffer for a free consultation.

DARDEN LAWSUIT

bschaffer — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:17:30 +0000

Last week, the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) filed a lawsuit in Chicago Federal Court against Darden Restaurants, parent company of Capital Grille, alleging unpaid wage violations, such as: Minimum Wage, Overtime and Spread of Hours. The new lawsuit also requests to proceed as a class and collective action on behalf of all Capital Grille employees nation-wide. Our firm, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, filed this case first, on November 17, 2011 and we already have over 25 Plaintiffs from 7 different states. Information about our case can be found at WWW.CAPITALGRILLELAWSUIT.COM.

NOVARTIS OVERTIME SETTLEMENT

bschaffer — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:55:53 +0000

Novartis, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, has agreed to pay a staggering $99 million to resolve a class action brought by sales representatives for unpaid overtime. This very issue, of whether pharmaceutical sales representatives are entitled to overtime is scheduled to be decided by the United States Supreme Court later this year. These cases revolve around the issue of the administrative and outside sales overtime exemptions. In the Novartis case, the company won summary judgment on the exemption issue at the District Court level. However, the Second Circuit reversed on appeal, finding the sales representatives not exempt and thus entitled to unpaid overtime. The Supreme Court will have to rule on the outside sales exemption, which will be interesting, since pharmaceutical salespeople do not sell any products. Sales people merely “pitch” the products to doctors, who in turn, prescribe the drugs to patients. We will update you following the Supreme Court’s ruling, which will affect overtime eligibility for all salespeople nationwide.

CITIGROUP LOSES FINRA ARBITARTION TO FINANCIAL ADVISORS, OWES $24 MILLION

bschaffer — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:52:37 +0000

In one of the largest FINRA arbitration awards ever, Citigroup was ordered to pay two financial advisers and their assistant $24 million in unpaid commissions. In 2002, brothers James Bryan Minchello and Robert Vincent Minchello were hired by Citigroup Smith Barney. The brothers had previously worked for Bank of America and brought a large book of business, including several venture capital firms and a large communications company to Citigroup. Pursuant to an employment agreement with Citigroup, the brothers were to receive certain commissions based on revenue generated. The FINRA arbitration panel ruled for the brothers and their assistant, awarding $15.8 million in compensatory damages, 6% interest for over 7 years and $1 million in sanctions. This case illustrates that financial advisers should be very diligent in obtaining a written employment agreement and keeping track of their hours worked and commissions earned and paid.

LADY GAGA OVERTIME LAWSUIT

bschaffer — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:20:21 +0000

On December 14, 2011, Jennifer O’Neill filed an unpaid overtime lawsuit against Lady Gaga, one of the most successful recording artists of all-time, for failing to pay her time and one half when she worked over 40 hours per week. The Plaintiff, Ms. O’Neill was employed as Lady Gaga’s personal assistant from 2009 until March 2011. Rather than being paid an hourly rate plus overtime, Plaintiff was paid a salary regardless of the number of hours actually worked. The complaint alleges entitlement to over $350,000 in unpaid overtime. In order to defeat the case, Lady Gaga will have to show Plaintiff was exempt and therefore not entitled to premium overtime pay. Exemptions are affirmative defenses and carry a high burden. Generally speaking, a personal assistant would not be exempt under the administrative exemption, this entitling them to overtime pay.

The facts of the case illustrate a common misconception in the business community, namely that if employees are paid on salary, they are not entitled to overtime pay. This is simply not true. If a person works over 40 hours a week, they should call an employment lawyer to determine if they are owed overtime.

NLRB RULES CLASS ARBITRATION AGREEMENTS ARE ILLEGAL

bschaffer — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:28:32 +0000

In a monumental decision, the NLRB has ruled that forcing employees to sign class-action waivers is illegal. In this case, the employer, DR Horton, forced employees to sign arbitration agreements stating they could bring individual claims, not class action claims in arbitration. The employee wanted to file a collective action under the FLSA to recover unpaid overtime. The decision is significant because the Fair Labor Standards Act allows employees to bring a case on behalf of themselves and all others who are similarly situated to vindicate their rights for non-payment of minimum wages and overtime. This collective action provision allows employees to hire attorneys to pursue their case on a contingency fee, in order to assist the employee and all others who with to join the suit. Employers favor individual claims, rather than class actions, knowing that the time and expense would be too great for lawyers to take these cases. As a result of this decision, which will likely be appealed, employees can bring class actions, even if their arbitration agreement contained a class waiver.

BENJAMIN STEAKHOUSE LAWSUIT

bschaffer — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:34:52 +0000

Click Here to view the Complaint- Scanned Complaint_11 Civ. 9401 (PKC)

Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a class action lawsuit in the Southern District of New York, against Benjamin Steakhouse, an upscale steakhouse in Manhattan. The restaurant is owned by Alban “Benjamin” Prelvukaj, a former employee of Peter Luger. We allege that our client and similarly situated hourly, tipped employees, such as servers, bussers and bartenders were not paid full minimum wage and overtime for all the hours they worked. Even though tipped employees clocked in and out for every shift, their paychecks grossly underestimated the hours they actually worked. We also allege that tipped employees are entitled to full minimum wage, rather than the reduced minimum wage, because the tip pool included non-tip eligible employees, such as glass polishers and silver polishers. If somebody worked for Benjamin Steakhouse within the past 6 years, they should contact Fitapelli & Schaffer to join the case.

Accountants Entitled to Overtime Pay

bschaffer — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:45:57 +0000

Even though accountants are always classified as exempt and not paid overtime when they work over 40 hours per week, they are very likely to be entitled to overtime pay. Most accounting firms classify all accountants as exempt from receiving overtime, regardless of the job they actually perform. Non-licensed accountants are very likely entitled to overtime pay. This appears to be an industry-wide epidemic. As an example, a Federal Court in New York just ruled that certain accounting employees for Deloitte & Touche can receive Court authorized notice of an overtime lawsuit that covers the following job titles nationwide: Audit Assistants, Audit Senior Assistants, Audits in Charge and Audit Seniors. Non-Licensed accountants should call the firm for a free consultation regarding overtime pay.

Applebee’s Decision Regarding Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees

bschaffer — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:31:51 +0000

An Appeals Court has recently ruled against Applebee’s regarding the payment of minimum wage to tipped employees. In that case, tipped employees, such as servers, bartenders and bussers spent more than 20% of their day performing non-tipped related activities, such as setting tables, cleaning silverware, filling salt and pepper shakers, cutting fruits and vegetables and general cleaning. Since tipped employees spent more than 20% of their day performing non-tipped related duties, they were entitled to the full minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, rather than the tipped minimum wage, which is currently $5 per hour in New York. Tipped employees should keep track of how many hours per shift they are performing non-tipped work, as they may be entitled to the difference between the full minimum wage rate and the tipped minimum wage rate plus 100% as a penalty.

LAWSUIT AGAINST CAPITAL GRILLE

bschaffer — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:54:32 +0000

Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a nation-wide class and collective action against Capital Grille, a chain of over 40 upscale steak houses. We are seeking to represent all tipped employees, including servers, bartenders, bussers, runners and barbacks who currently or have worked for the company for the past six years. We allege the following violations:

1. Minimum Wage- Employees should have been paid $7.25 per hour and should have been compensated for having to arrive at work 15 minutes before the start of their shift and for all work performed after they punched out at the end of their shift;

2. Overtime- Employees should have been paid $10.86 if they worked over 40 hours per week;

3. Misappropriated tips- Employees should not have been required to tip-out the Silver Polisher and Dishwasher;

4. Uniform Maintenance Pay- Employees should have been reimbursed for dry cleaning their dark brown blazer;

5. Spread of Hours- Employees should have been paid one extra hour at $7.25 if they worked over 10 hours in one day.

Scanned Complaint – 11 CV 8345 (NRB)