Boston Market has agreed to settle an overtime claim for $3 million. The claim was brought on behalf of assistant managers who alleged they were wrongfully misclassified as exempt from the overtime laws. The settlement covers a nation-wide collective action pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act and class actions pursuant to New York and Connecticut law. Many cases involving assistant managers are fact specific, and turn on whether the employees performed menial tasks for a majority of their workday, ...
Continue Reading →9 APR
On April 6, 2012, Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the United States District Court, Southern District of New York granted Plaintiffs’ motion for a collective action pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The lawsuit alleged that Merrill Lynch and Bank of America misclassified Financial Advisors as exempt salaried employees and thus, did not pay them overtime. However, because the Court found that all Financial Advisors are similarly situated, a notice will be mailed to all Financial Advisors advising ...
Continue Reading →27 MAR
As people find it increasingly difficult to obtain employment in the midst of the great recession, a new trend has emerged: Employers are using the poor job market as an excuse to test the boundaries of privacy laws regarding prospective candidates. Knowing full-well that individuals are desperate to secure employment, companies are attempting to secure private information as a way of screening potential applicants. For example, companies have begun requesting that potential hires provide their facebook username and password at ...
Continue Reading →21 MAR
Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP recently filed a class and collective action lawsuit against Andres Carne De Tres, a very popular Columbian restaurant in Woodside, Queens. We allege tipped employees were not paid minimum wage, overtime, spread of hours, gratuities and service charges. To make matters worse, our client was paid only $30 no matter how many hours worked per shift. We are seeking to have all current and formers waiters, bussers and bartenders join the case.
Continue Reading →7 MAR
Mario Batali has settled a putative class and collective action lawsuit covering his restaurants in New York. The lawsuit covers tipped employees who worked for the restaurants over the past six years. The bulk of the settlement deals with tip misappropriation under New York State Law. The lawsuit alleged that Batali’s restaurants deducted the equivalent of 4-5% of each shift’s wine and beverage sales from the tip pool. In essence, the deduction amounted to stealing tips from the tipped employees ...
Continue Reading →23 FEB
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Fitapelli & Schaffer recently filed a class action lawsuit against Astoria Brewhouse, a very popular night spot in Astoria, Queens. The lawsuit alleges unpaid wages, consisting of minimum wage, overtime, spread of hours and failure to pay gratuities. We are seeking to have the case certified as a class action, where we would represent all tipped employees who have worked at the restaurant over the past six years. Employees are usually unaware that they ...
Continue Reading →23 FEB
Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a collective action lawsuit against Uncle George’s Greek Tavern in Astoria, New York for failing to pay minimum wage, overtime and spread of hours to tipped employees and kitchen workers over the past three years. Unfortunately, these violations are commonplace at restaurants in New York City. Employees should be aware that they may be entitled to double damages for wage violations.
Continue Reading →16 FEB
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 ...
Continue Reading →8 FEB
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 ...
Continue Reading →29 JAN
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 ...
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