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 →22 DEC
Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit on December 19, 2014, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of “Stars Staffing Services”, “SPS Resources, Inc.”, “Hornblower Group Inc.”, “Hornblower Yachts, Inc., and “Hornblower New York, LLC” on behalf of all servers, bussers, bartenders, barbacks, and other “Tipped Workers” who have worked for Star Staffing Services (“Star Staffing”), and all Tipped Workers who have worked for Star Hospitality Group at ...
Continue Reading →20 NOV
On November 19, 2014, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of “The Palm” restaurants, including New York locations such as: “The Palm” located at 250 West 50th Street; “The Palm” located at 837 Second Avenue; “The Palm Too” located at 840 Second Avenue; “The Palm Restaurant” located at 206 West Street; “The Palm Restaurant at Huntting Inn” located at 94 Main ...
Continue Reading →20 NOV
On November 19, 2014, Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the owners of Souen Soho, Souen Noodle, and Souen 13 (the “Souen Restaurants”) on behalf of all food preparers, salad preparers, dishwashers, pantry workers, food packagers, servers, bussers, delivery persons, and other “Non-Exempt workers” who have worked at these restaurants.
The lawsuit alleges that the owners of these restaurants have instituted widespread unlawful policies ...
Continue Reading →14 NOV
Recently, a class action lawsuit filed in 2009 against the Midtown strip club Rick’s Cabaret has resulted in the return of over $10 million dollars in back wages to the club’s current and former dancers and entertainers. Rick’s Cabaret instituted a policy by which it refused to pay its dancers and entertainers any wages whatsoever, and even charged its dancers $60 per shift. Rick’s Cabaret also collected 2 of every 20 “Dance Dollars” that dancers received through credit card payments ...
Continue Reading →23 SEP
On August 11, 2014, a former delivery driver filed a lawsuit in NY Federal Court against Pizza Hut, his former employer, seeking to recover for unpaid gratuities, overtime pay, liquidated damages, and attorneys’ fees and costs. The delivery driver is claiming that he is entitled to the $2.75 “Delivery Fee” that Pizza Hut charged its customers for deliveries. He is alleging that this “Delivery Fee” was believed to be a service charge paid to the delivery driver by the customers; ...
Continue Reading →25 AUG
Fitapelli & Schaffer, LLP filed a class action lawsuit on August 22, 2014, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Jacques Restaurant Group on behalf of all line cooks, food preparers, dishwashers, servers, bussers, runners, bartenders, and cooks (“Restaurant Workers”) who work or have worked at Jacques Brasserie located at 204 East 85th Street, New York, New York, Jacques 1534 located at 20 Prince Street, New York, New York, or The Pitch & ...
Continue Reading →24 JUN
An Act sitting in the New York State Senate may bring important changes to the New York Labor Law. If Governor Cuomo signs the Act then employers will no longer be required to provide annual wage notices. Instead employers will only have to provide an employee with a wage notice upon hire. If an employer does not provide an employee with a wage notice after 10 business days of the employee’s first day of work, then a penalty of up ...
Continue Reading →12 JUN