A lawsuit filed against A-1 First Class Moving & Storage (“A-1 Moving”) alleges that A-1 Moving failed to pay its service employees the prevailing wage rate as set by the New York City Comptroller’s Office. The prevailing wage is the pay rate set by law for work on public works projects. The prevailing wage law covers anyone who: works in construction under a public works contract on a City-owned facility; provides building services such as security, cleaning, temporary office clerical, ...
Continue Reading →30 JAN
Counsel for Defendants asked the Court to compel removal of Plaintiffs’ website (www.TGIFridayslawsuit.com) alleging the website contained false and misleading information and infringed on T.G.I. Friday’s trademark. Plaintiffs argued that the website was proper attorney advertising and would not infringe on Friday’s trademarks because the public would not be confused regarding who controlled the website. The website contains disclaimers specifically stating that, “This website is not affiliated or endorsed by TGI Fridays or tgifridays.com. This website provides information regarding a ...
Continue Reading →17 JAN
An investigation seeks to uncover whether Barnes and Noble properly classified their Assistant Managers as exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Laws. By classifying their Assistant Managers as exempt, Barnes and Noble paid them a set salary regardless of the amount of hours they worked. However, it is alleged that Barnes and Noble misclassified their Assistant Managers as exempt since Assistant Managers performed the same work as the hourly employees. ...
Continue Reading →19 DEC
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F&S is pleased to announce that Judge Hellerstein has signed off on a stipulation allowing court-authorized notice to be sent to over 600 current and former employees of celebrity chef Daniel Boulud’s restaurants: Daniel, DBGB, Bar Boulud and Boulud Sud. If a person joins the case, they will be able to seek remedies for unpaid minimum wage, overtime, tips and spread of hours.
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6 DEC
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We are pleased to report that Judge McMahon has granted our motion for Rule 23 Class Certification for all tipped and kitchen workers who have worked at Public House, Butterfield 8, Tammany Hall and Wicker Park in the past six years. We will be sending notices shortly advising employees of their ability to participate and recover if a settlement is reached. Restaurant workers should be aware that they are able to bring claims for ...
Continue Reading →26 NOV
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On November 20, 2012, Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a class action lawsuit against The Riese Organization, Inc., who owns and/or operates 10 T.G.I. Friday’s in Manhattan. T.G.I. Friday’s is a popular restaurant brand with more than 500 locations worldwide. This lawsuit alleges that T.G.I. Friday’s failed to pay proper minimum wages, overtime pay, spread-of-hours pay, and call in pay to servers, bussers, runners, bartenders, barbacks and other tipped workers as required under the federal ...
Continue Reading →16 NOV
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Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a class and collective action against Chipotle Mexican Grill, a “fast casual” restaurant chain with over 1300 locations nationwide. The lawsuit alleges that Chipotle failed to pay their Apprentices and Assistant Managers proper overtime compensation by misclassifying them as exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Laws. We allege that Salaried Apprentices performed the same work as hourly employees, primarily working ...
Continue Reading →16 NOV
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On November 15, 2012, Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a class and collective action lawsuit against Legends Hospitality, LLC and New York Yankees Partnership (collectively, “Yankees”). The lawsuit alleges that Yankees led their customers to believe that the mandatory service charge during private catering events was a gratuity that would be distributed to the Banquet Servers. However, the Yankees retained a portion of this gratuity/service charge. Moreover, the Yankees failed to pay its Banquet Servers ...
Continue Reading →5 OCT
Kramer v. Trans-Lux Corp., No. 3:11cv1424 (SRU) (D. Conn. Sept. 25, 2012)
A Federal Court in a recent case gave an expansive interpretation of the whistleblower protections under the Dodd-Frank Act. Some fear that this ruling will allow more employees to qualify as whistleblowers and, therefore, be afforded the protections of Dodd-Frank from retaliation by their employer. A “whistleblower” is any individual who provides information relating to a violation of the securities laws to the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”). ...
Continue Reading →21 SEP
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Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a lawsuit today in Supreme Court Bronx County against the New York Yankees and Legends Hospitality for failing to pay proper wages and gratuities to in-seat servers. The lawsuit was filed on behalf on 32 workers, many of which are current employees. According to the lawsuit, the Yankees and Legends failed to pay the 20% service charge or administrative fee that was automatically added to the menu prices to in-seat ...
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