Construction site safety flaggers have just filed a class and collective action against Akela Contracting LLC and JDV Safety for unpaid wages. Akela, a large-scale construction contractor based out of New York with various construction projects with the City, utilized JDV Safety to provide safety services for these projects. As the prime contractor, Akela used JDV Safety to provide Flagpersons or Flaggers to their construction sites. This lawsuit seeks to recover overtime compensation and other damages under New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) for similarly situated Flaggers who work or have worked on private and public works construction projects in New York City operated by Akela Contracting LLC, Civetta Cousins JV LLC, and Karine Williams (together “Akela”) and JDV Safety Inc., All Eyes on Safety Inc. and Brian McDermott (collectively, “JDV Safety”) between June 28, 2015 and the date of final judgment in this matter.
Specifically, this lawsuit alleges that Akela and JDV Safety avoided paying its Flaggers the prevailing wage rates required by contracts with the City of New York, failed to pay overtime compensation for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, and paid Flaggers on an untimely bi-weekly schedule. Contractually, Akela and JDV Safety were legally required to pay its Flaggers the applicable prevailing wages rate which was significantly higher than the rate they were paid. In turn, Flaggers were also denied the correct overtime rates that complied with the FLSA and NYLL’s mandate of no less than 1.5 times their prevailing wage rates for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek while working on a public works contract. Additionally, Akela and JDV Safety compensated its Flaggers in New York on a bi-weekly basis. Despite being manual workers, they failed to properly pay these workers their wages within seven calendar days after the end of the week in which these wages were earned. In this regard, Flaggers were denied timely wages under NYLL in addition to adequate wage notices and accurate wage statements.
Unfortunately, the construction industry often takes advantage of its employees. Violations such as unpaid hours, unpaid overtime, unpaid premium prevailing wage rates, and time shaving often riddle hard working laborers’ paychecks. If you have worked for Akela Contracting, LLC or JDV Safety and want to know how this lawsuit may affect your rights, do not hesitate to contact our firm, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, for additional information. If you work in the construction industry, make sure you are not leaving any of your hard earned money on the table. To ensure you are being paid all the wages you are entitled to, give us a call at (212)300-0375 to schedule a free and confidential phone consultation.
You can also view the filed complaint here.