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
southern district of new york
Federal Court Orders Trial Regarding Lady Gaga Assistant’s Wage Claims
In the still unresolved FLSA litigation concerning alleged unpaid overtime brought by a former personal assistant to entertainer Stefani Germanotta a/k/a Lady Gaga, Judge Paul Gardephe of the Southern District of New York has issued a lengthy ruling addressing some of the asserted claims and defenses. The Court concluded that plaintiff’s New York state law claims …
More and More Interns Seeking Allegedly Unpaid Wages
Presumably buoyed by the district court ruling in Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82079 (S.D.N.Y. June 11, 2013), a number of copy-cat lawsuits have been filed by former entertainment industry interns in recent weeks in the Southern District of New York’s Manhattan courthouse seeking unpaid wages. Salaam, et al. …
Intern Filings Seeking Alleged Unpaid Wages Continue
In the wake of the first substantive decisions issued as part of the growing trend of wage-and-hour claims being initiated by interns recently seeking alleged unpaid minimum wages and overtime, several more high profile filings have become public over the last few weeks, including most recently a claim against popular internet media conglomerate Gawker. Mark, …
Oxygen Network and Parent NBC Succeed in Compelling Arbitration of Class Wage Claims
With the policy behind arbitration embodied in the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) reinforced by a series of Supreme Court decisions (Stolt-Nielsen (2010); Concepcion (2011) and Greenwood (2012)), employers continue to implement mandatory arbitration programs under the FAA. Among the many reasons to consider implementation of such a program is the utility of a class/collective action…
New York District Court Denies Summary Judgment As To Applicability of Administrative Exemption To “Research Associate”
Confusion continues to reign throughout the federal district courts as to the scope of the administrative exemption as set forth in the regulations at 29 C.F.R. §§ 541.200-202. In a decision highlighting this lack of clarity, Federal District Judge Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York recently denied cross-motions for summary judgment as to…
New York Federal Court Finds Corporate CEO Individually Liable For Unpaid Wages
In the latest installment in a long running dispute regarding compensation of certain mid-level managerial employees at the Gristede’s chain of New York-area grocery stores, federal Judge Paul Crotty ruled last week that Gristede’s corporate CEO, John Catsimatidis, is an individually liable “employer” under the FLSA and New York Labor Law. Torres, et al. v. …
New York Court Finds Warehouse Captain To Be Exempt Executive
We previously discussed New York courts applying the FLSA’s executive exemption, which exempts employees whose primary duty is management (and who are paid on a salary basis) from minimum wage and overtime pay obligations. Recently, Judge Berman of the Southern District upheld the application of the exemption to a group of warehouse “Captains.” Ramos v. Baldor …
New York Federal Court Denies Early Summary Judgment Motion as to Exempt Status of Financial Analyst
One commonly held misconception in wage-and-hour law is that all investment professionals in the financial industry are categorically exempt from overtime pay. In a decision contrary to such assumption, Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York recently denied summary judgment to a boutique investment bank as to the exempt status of a financial…