On November 16, 2015, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman issued a press release stating that Abdul Jamil Khokar, a franchisee of nine Papa John’s restaurants in the Bronx, pled guilty for failing to pay wages under the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”). BMY Foods, Inc., the corporation which owned and operated the Papa John’s franchises with Khokar, pled guilty of falsifying business records. Khokar will serve 60 days in jail, and will pay $230,000 in restitution to his ...
Continue Reading →12 NOV
Joe’s Crab Shack has announced that they will be dropping tipping as a method of payment for all of its restaurants. Employees of Joe’s Crab Shack will now be paid $14.00 per hour, but there is also the potential for pay to vary based on each particular employee’s past performance at the restaurant. Joe’s Crab Shack’s parent corporation, Ignite Restaurant Group, first experimented with this policy at 18 of its locations, and will now be implementing it at all 113 ...
Continue Reading →9 NOV
On November 5, 2015, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP and Pechman Law Group, PLLC filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Oaxaca restaurants in New York City. The lawsuit is filed on behalf of all servers, cooks, kitchen assistants, counterpersons, delivery persons, and other Restaurant Workers (collectively, “Restaurant Workers”) who work or have worked at Oaxaca Taqueria located at the Upper West Side (“Oaxaca Amsterdam”) located at 424 Amsterdam ...
Continue Reading →9 NOV
On November 5, 2015, Fitapelli & Schaffer LLP filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Lasership , Inc., and Mahmoud, Inc. (collectively, “Lasership” or “Defendants”). The lawsuit is filed on behalf of all delivery persons or “walkers” (collectively, “walkers”) who work or have worked at Lasership in New York.
The lawsuit alleges that the owners and operators of Lasership have instituted widespread practices and policies that violate their walkers ...
Continue Reading →9 NOV
On November 3, 2015, The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Plaintiffs’ Motion for a 45 day extension of the deadline for potential plaintiffs to opt-in to the lawsuit against Carlson’s Restaurant Inc. and TGI Friday’s Inc. (collectively, “TGI Friday’s”). The lawsuit alleges that TGI Friday’s failed to pay its servers, bussers, runners, bartenders, barbacks, hosts and other tipped food service workers (“Tipped Employees”) proper minimum wage, overtime pay, spread-of-hours pay, and misappropriated tips, ...
Continue Reading →22 OCT
On Wednesday, October 21 2015, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed eight bills that make up part of the Women’s Equality Act (“WEA”), which was first initiated by Cuomo in 2012. These WEA bills are designed to end gender based inequality and discrimination. The bills signed involve equal pay for women, prohibition of employment discrimination, among many other issues. The bills will largely take effect within 90 days.
Specifically, one of the signed bills will prohibit employers from paying women less ...
Continue Reading →20 OCT
On October 15, 2015, the United States District Court for the District of Montana granted Plaintiff’s Motion for Conditional Certification and Notice against Exploration Drilling for Unpaid Overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). In granting Conditional Certification, the Court held that Plaintiff met his burden of establishing that he and the putative class members, consisting of Flowback Operators, are similarly situated. This determination by the Court was based off of six declarations, one from Plaintiff and the rest ...
Continue Reading →25 SEP
On Friday, September 25, 2015, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Numero 28 Pizzerias in New York. The lawsuit is filed on behalf of all servers, busboys, runners, bartenders, and other “Tipped Workers” who work or have worked at any of Numero 28 pizzerias in New York City. Numero 28’s New York City locations include the “West Village”- located at 28 Carmine Street, ...
Continue Reading →24 SEP
On Tuesday September 22, 2015, oil and gas service provider Halliburton came to an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to pay more than $18 million in unpaid overtime wages to over 1,000 of Halliburton employees across the nation. The DOL, in a news release, called it “one of the largest recoveries of overtime wages in recent years.”
Halliburton is one of the largest oil and gas service providers in the world. Halliburton has more than 70,000 employees, with ...
Continue Reading →18 SEP
On September 18, 2015, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP, filed a lawsuit in Supreme Court New York County against JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Abdool Shakur (collectively, Defendants). The lawsuit is filed on behalf of Gulshan Chhabra (“Plaintiff”), a former Relationship Banker at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The lawsuit alleges Defendants discriminated against Plaintiff based on his age and retaliated against him, in violation of the New York City Human Rights Law (“NYCHRL”). Age is a protected category under the NYCHRL, therefore ...
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