On November 19, 2014, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of “The Palm” restaurants, including New York locations such as: “The Palm” located at 250 West 50th Street; “The Palm” located at 837 Second Avenue; “The Palm Too” located at 840 Second Avenue; “The Palm Restaurant” located at 206 West Street; “The Palm Restaurant at Huntting Inn” located at 94 Main ...
Continue Reading →20 NOV
On November 19, 2014, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of Souen Soho, Souen Noodle, and Souen 13 (the “Souen Restaurants”) on behalf of all food preparers, salad preparers, dishwashers, pantry workers, food packagers, servers, bussers, delivery persons, and other “Non-Exempt workers” who have worked at these restaurants.
The lawsuit alleges that the owners of these restaurants have instituted widespread unlawful policies ...
Continue Reading →14 NOV
Recently, a class action lawsuit filed in 2009 against the Midtown strip club Rick’s Cabaret has resulted in the return of over $10 million dollars in back wages to the club’s current and former dancers and entertainers. Rick’s Cabaret instituted a policy by which it refused to pay its dancers and entertainers any wages whatsoever, and even charged its dancers $60 per shift. Rick’s Cabaret also collected 2 of every 20 “Dance Dollars” that dancers received through credit card payments ...
Continue Reading →12 NOV
Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit on November 12, 2014, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of “Tolani”, located at 410 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10024, on behalf of all bartenders, barbacks, servers, bussers, runners, line cooks, food preparers, dishwashers, and other “Non-Exempt Workers” who have worked there.
The lawsuit alleges that the owners of this restaurant have instituted widespread policies in violation of the Fair Labor ...
Continue Reading →12 NOV
Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit on November 12, 2014, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of “SideBAR”, the Union Square location of “Little Town”, “Village Pourhouse”,“Hudson Terrace”, “Tres Carnes”, and “House of ‘Que” (the “Defendants”), on behalf of all servers, bussers, runners, bartenders, barbacks, and other “tipped workers” who have worked at either of these locations.
The lawsuit alleges that the owners of these restaurants have instituted ...
Continue Reading →12 NOV
Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit on November 12, 2014, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Mexican Radio Corp., the owners of the “Mexican Radio” restaurants located at 19 Cleveland Place, New York, NY 10012 and 537 Warren Street, Hudson, NY 12543 (collectively, the “Mexican Radio Restaurants”), on behalf of all servers, bartenders, runners, supervisors, and other “tipped workers” who have worked at either of these locations.
The lawsuit alleges ...
Continue Reading →4 NOV
Recently, the United States District Court for the Western District of New York denied Defendant Crab Addison, Inc.’s (“Crab Addison”) motion to dismiss a Plaintiff class’s minimum-wage claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) alleging that Defendants paid the Plaintiff class less than the full required minimum wage pursuant to a “tip credit”, while having them spend a significant amount of time performing non-tipped duties. In its prior decision, the Court granted Defendant’s motion to dismiss the FLSA minimum-wage ...
Continue Reading →29 OCT
Recently, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee has signed off on a proposed class settlement between Publix Super Markets Inc. (“Publix”) and Erin Knights, individually and as a representative of a class (“Knights”). Knights brought an action under the Fair Credit and Reporting Act (“FCRA”), alleging that Publix’s computerized background check authorization webpage, which is included in their job application process, violated the FCRA. Specifically, Knights alleged that neither the background check application screen or ...
Continue Reading →27 OCT
Last week, NBCUniversal agreed to pay $6.4 million to their interns to resolve an unpaid wages lawsuit. Last year, former interns of NBCUniversal filed a lawsuit alleging that NBCUniversal failed to pay them the applicable minimum wage or any wages at all for their work in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act which states that internships must benefit the interns, not the employer. Although NBCUniversal did not admit any wrongdoing, this is yet another case where a company has ...
Continue Reading →16 OCT
On September 30, 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order increasing New York City’s workers wages which takes effect immediately. The Order expands the New York City’s Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, raising the Living Wage from $11.90 to $13.13 per hour – and likely to reach $15.22 per hour by the year 2019. The $13.13 per hour is the Living Wage without benefits or $11.50 per hour with benefits (up from $11.90 and $10.30, respectively).
This ...