On March 17, 2015, the New York State Assembly took a major step forward in the protection of workers’ rights with their passage of the Paid Family Leave Insurance Act (A3870) by a margin of 84 to 43. This new bill will provide qualified employees with up to 12 weeks of paid leave, with benefits of up to $545 per week. The funding for the benefits will be taken from an employee payroll deduction that will initially amount to, at ...
Continue Reading →12 MAR
On March 11, 2015 the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reached a precedential holding in the case of McMaster v. Eastern Armored Services, Inc., affirming the District Court’s opinion that the professional motor carrier exemption does not apply for motor carrier employees who, either in whole or in part, drive vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds. This case was brought by an employee for an armored courier company who spent roughly 51% of her time working ...
Continue Reading →24 FEB
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration has announced today that the New York State sub-minimum wage rate for all tipped workers will be raised to $7.50 an hour at the end of 2015. This is a substantial and well warranted increase from the current tipped wage rate of $5.00, and will bring the tipped wage rate much closer to the regular minimum wage rate, which will itself increase from $8.75 to $9.00 at the end of 2015.
The unprompted raise should provide a ...
Continue Reading →10 FEB
A recent summary order issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the case of Jacob v. Duane Reade, Inc. affirmed the District Court’s holding that the lawsuit, pertaining to a class of misclassified Assistant Store Managers, meets the requirements for class certification, at least in regards to questions of liability. The Plaintiff class consists of Assistant Store Managers at New York Duane Reade locations who believe that they have been misclassified by their employer ...
Continue Reading →5 FEB
A sexual harassment claim filed on behalf of two female former Assembly employees, Victoria Burhans and Chloe Rivera, against their employer, former New York State Assemblyman Vito Lopez, has recently resulted in a tentative settlement agreement (pending approval by state officials) which will see both the state and Lopez himself paying out significant damages. Specifically, the settlement awards Plaintiffs a total of $580,000 in damages, with $545,000 of that being paid by the state and $45,000 being paid by Lopez. ...
Continue Reading →4 FEB
On January 20, 2015, in the case of Flood v. Carlson Restaurants Inc., Judge Analisa Torres of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Plaintiffs’ motion for a nationwide conditional collective action certification, court-authorized notice, and expedited discovery. Plaintiffs originally commenced this action on April 17, 2014, on behalf of themselves and all similarly situated current and former tipped workers – including servers, bussers, runners, bartenders, barbacks, and hosts – employed at T.G.I. Friday’s ...
Continue Reading →14 JAN
Recently, a Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court Eastern District of New York denied Defendants’ motion for class decertification in the case of Ravenell v. Avis Budget Car Rental, LLC. Plaintiffs, shift managers employed by “Avis Rent a Car”, filed a collective action lawsuit to challenge their classification as exempt under the FLSA administrative and executive exemption, and to recover overtime compensation. While the class was previously conditionally certified as a collective action, Defendants sought to seek decertification ...
Continue Reading →6 JAN
As of December 29, 2014, a new bill has been signed into law amending various aspects of the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”). This includes various changes to the Wage Theft Prevention Act (“WTPA”), and how the NYLL interacts with limited liability companies, contractors, and successor employers. One of the major components of the new bill is the repeal of the WTPA’s annual wage notice requirement. Outside of the hospitality industry, which must still issue new pay notices to their ...
Continue Reading →6 JAN
Looming revisions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) are likely to make millions of previously exempt American workers eligible for overtime pay and other protections provided by the FLSA. While there has been no official proposal released as of yet, an executive action issued in 2014 is likely to lead to revisions of certain FLSA criteria and standards which have remained mostly stagnant since as far back as 2004. Specifically, analysts and policy makers expect significant changes to the ...
Continue Reading →6 JAN
On January 5, 2015, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a collective action complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners and operators of “S. Katzman Produce”, a produce wholesaler located in the New York City Terminal Market at Hunts Point in the Bronx, on behalf of all foremen and other “Non-Exempt Workers” who have worked there.
Plaintiffs in this lawsuit submit that they were subjected to widespread, repeated, and consistent practices which ...
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