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 ...
Continue Reading →24 JAN
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 ...
Continue Reading →17 JAN
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 ...
Continue Reading →9 JAN
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 ...
Continue Reading →22 DEC
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 ...
Continue Reading →20 DEC
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 ...
Continue Reading →9 DEC
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 ...
Continue Reading →18 NOV
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 ...
Continue Reading →9 NOV
Fitapelli & Schaffer is pleased to announce that Judge Colleen McMahon of the United States District Court, Southern District of New York has approved a collective action notice which will be sent to all tipped employees who worked for the two Flute Bars in New York City during the past three years. If someone fills out and sends back the form, they will become a plaintiff in the case and will be eligible to share in ...
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