On April 6, 2012, Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the United States District Court, Southern District of New York granted Plaintiffs’ motion for a collective action pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The lawsuit alleged that Merrill Lynch and Bank of America misclassified Financial Advisors as exempt salaried employees and thus, did not pay them overtime. However, because the Court found that all Financial Advisors are similarly situated, a notice will be mailed to all Financial Advisors advising ...
Continue Reading →21 MAR
Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP recently filed a class and collective action lawsuit against Andres Carne De Tres, a very popular Columbian restaurant in Woodside, Queens. We allege tipped employees were not paid minimum wage, overtime, spread of hours, gratuities and service charges. To make matters worse, our client was paid only $30 no matter how many hours worked per shift. We are seeking to have all current and formers waiters, bussers and bartenders join the case.
Continue Reading →23 FEB
Click Here to Read the Complaint
Fitapelli & Schaffer recently filed a class action lawsuit against Astoria Brewhouse, a very popular night spot in Astoria, Queens. The lawsuit alleges unpaid wages, consisting of minimum wage, overtime, spread of hours and failure to pay gratuities. We are seeking to have the case certified as a class action, where we would represent all tipped employees who have worked at the restaurant over the past six years. Employees are usually unaware that they ...
Continue Reading →23 FEB
Fitapelli & Schaffer filed a collective action lawsuit against Uncle George’s Greek Tavern in Astoria, New York for failing to pay minimum wage, overtime and spread of hours to tipped employees and kitchen workers over the past three years. Unfortunately, these violations are commonplace at restaurants in New York City. Employees should be aware that they may be entitled to double damages for wage violations.
Continue Reading →16 FEB
UBS, one of the world’s largest financial services companies has agreed to pay $1.4 million to resolve an unpaid overtime class action. The case was brought on behalf of computer technicians who alleged they were paid a salary, and were misclassified as exempt employees, thus entitling them to unpaid overtime. Generally, computer help desk or computer customer service employees are entitled to be paid overtime, while programmers and code-writers are not. Many help desk or customer service employees are required ...
Continue Reading →8 FEB
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 →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 →