Martinez v. Hilton Hotels Corp., No. 10 Civ. 7688(JLC), 2013 WL 1087211 (S.D.N.Y. March 15, 2013).<\/p>\n
The Court denied the defendants\u2019 (the employers) motions for summary judgment.\u00a0 The defendants tried to get the case dismissed by arguing that the plaintiffs (the employees) qualified for the executive exemption making them not entitled to overtime.\u00a0 The defendants also tried to have the court calculate overtime damages using the fluctuating work week method.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs were housekeeping managers and assistant housekeeping managers who worked at the defendants\u2019 hotel.\u00a0 The plaintiffs consistently worked over 40 hrs per workweek and were never paid overtime.\u00a0 The Court denied the motion for summary judgment regarding the executive exemption because both parties disputed what the plaintiffs\u2019 primary duties were, whether the plaintiffs \u201ccustomarily and regularly\u201d directed the work of two or more people and whether any particular weight was given to the plaintiffs\u2019 \u201csuggestions and recommendations\u201d for hiring or firing staff.<\/p>\n
The Court also denied the defendants\u2019 motion to calculate the overtime damages using the fluctuating work week method.\u00a0 The Court stated that it\u2019s unclear whether there was a \u201cclear and mutual understanding\u201d that a fixed salary was intended to compensate the employee for all the hours worked.\u00a0 There was no mention in the plaintiffs\u2019 employment letters that their salary included the hours they worked over 40 or if plaintiffs were required to work over 40 hours per workweek.<\/p>\n
The Court\u2019s decision in this case could help employees recover more money.\u00a0 \u201cUnder the fluctuating work week method, the regular hourly rate is determined by dividing the fixed weekly salary by the number of hours the employee actually works in a particular week; the employee then receives one-half his or her regular rate of pay for all hours worked over forty per week.\u201d\u00a0 For example, if an employee worked 50 hours per week and was paid a set salary of $1,000 per week, under this method the employee would only be owed $100 for unpaid overtime.\u00a0 However, using the time and a half method the employee would be owed $375 for unpaid overtime, based on the same amount of hours worked and salary received in the example above.<\/p>\n
If you are receiving a fixed salary regardless of the amount of hours you work each week, please contact the employment lawyers at Fitapelli & Schaffer, (212) 300-0375, to schedule a free consultation so that we can discuss your rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Martinez v. Hilton Hotels Corp., No. 10 Civ. 7688(JLC), 2013 WL 1087211 (S.D.N.Y. March 15, 2013).
\nThe Court denied the defendants\u2019 (the employers) motions for summary judgment.\u00a0 The defendants tried to get the case dismissed by arguing that the plaintiffs (the employees) qualified for the executive exemption making them not entitled to overtime.\u00a0 The defendants also tried to have the court calculate overtime damages using the fluctuating work week method.
\nThe plaintiffs were housekeeping managers and assistant housekeeping managers who …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23,1,22,27,21,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-action","category-employment-law","category-flsa-2","category-ny-labor-law","category-overtime-2","category-unpaid-wages-2"],"yoast_head":"\n