Demoralized by the attendant costs of litigation and a shifting compliance environment in numerous jurisdictions, many hospitality industry employers have resolved wage-and-hour lawsuits brought in New York City and elsewhere over the last number of years. Bucking this trend, one such employer recently successfully defended its wage practices at trial. Mendez v. Int’l Food House
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New York Judge: Deduction of Full “Seamless Web” Fees from Gratuities Potentially Violates FLSA, New York Law
By Noel P. Tripp on
Posted in Tips and Tipped Employees
In a decision sure to attract attention within the New York hospitality industry, Judge Alison J. Nathan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in a case of first impression that deducting the full amount of service fees charged by internet food delivery sites (including popular web…
New York Judge Rejects Interns’ Novel Argument That Paying School Tuition Is An Indirect Wage Deduction
By Noel P. Tripp on
Posted in Minimum Wage, New York State
In the latest chapter in the ongoing intern battles currently being waged in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Harold Baer rejected plaintiffs’ novel assertion of unlawful wage deductions. Wang v. Hearst Corp., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3768 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 9, 2013). The Wang litigation concerns the applicability…
Courts Decertify Collective Actions Based On Auto-Deduct Claims, Citing Individualized Issues
By Noel P. Tripp on
Posted in Hours of Work
As we have repeatedly discussed, use of a so-called “auto-deduct”, wherein a predetermined amount of time is automatically deducted from an employee’s hours of work to correspond to a meal period with the understanding that the employee will perform no work during that period, can give rise to individual or class claims that an…