On September 20th, 2020, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, alongside Raymond Nardo, P.C., filed a class action lawsuit against Pro Custom Solar LLC (“Momentum Solar”), a solar energy provider to building owners including New York Times, for unpaid wages. This lawsuit aims to represent similarly situated current and former non-exempt, hourly positions such as installers (“Hourly Workers”) under New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) that worked for Momentum Solar within the State of New York between March 6, 2016 through the date of final judgement in this matter to recover untimely pay and other damages
The lawsuit specifically alleged that Momentum Solar failed to issue timely payment to installers of their wages pursuant to NYLL. Due to the labor intensive job duties of affected workers that required them to spend more than twenty-five percent of their shifts completing manual labor, they should have been paid weekly as opposed to bi-weekly as required by the NYLL. Installers spent significant shift time completing physical tasks including, but not limited to: (1) loading trucks with equipment; (2) setting up the installation which included setting up ladders, racking systems, and ropes; (3) installing solar units; and (4) cleaning up work sites, packing up trucks and driving. Since Momentum Solar failed to pay these employees their wages in a timely manner earned on a weekly basis, which should have been no later than seven calendar days after the end of the week in which the wages were earned, affected employees lost the time value of their money to the benefit of Momentum Solar. This lawsuit seeks to recover underpayment for untimely pay in the form of liquidated damages pursuant to the NYLL, prejudgment and post-judgment interest, unpaid commissions and attorneys’ fees and costs.
If you work for Momentum Solar, or a similar company in the industry, make sure you are getting paid for all of your hours worked in a timely manner. Unfortunately, not all industries that employ manually intensive workers in New York pay weekly as required by NYLL. You can reach our firm, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, for a free and confidential consultation at (212)300-0375 or you can visit our website here for additional helpful information regarding your work rights.
You can also view the filed complaint here.