blog Category Archives — Page 4 of 19 — Long Island Employment Law Blog Published by Long Island Employment Law Attorneys

December 27, 2017

New York Class Action Lawsuits

In employment law, discrimination and unpaid wage and overtime cases are sometimes brought as class actions. Class actions allow one or more employees to represent a larger group of employees who have been harmed in a similar way as the “class representatives.” By bringing a case as a class action, the court can hear the dispute in a more efficient way than hearing perhaps hundreds of individual employees’ cases. Today’s Long Island employment law blog explores an unsettled question about settling cases involving class actions.

What is a Class Action?

On December 12, 2017, in Desrosiers v. Perry Ellis Menswear, LLC, a class action case, the New York Court of Appeals, the highest New York state court, was asked to decide whether members of a class need to be notified when a court dismissed the case or when a settlement occurred, even if the class action had not yet been certified by the court.

December 21, 2017

Do I Have to Pay Interns?

by Famighetti & Weinick

Employers often wonder whether they have to pay their interns. This is a question courts have also grappled with over the past few years. Today’s Long Island employment law blog explores the question of whether interns are employees, requiring that employers pay them at least minimum wage.

Employees Must be Paid At Least Minimum Wage

Both federal law and state minimum wage laws generally require that employees earn at least the minimum wage. In New York, the minimum wage varies depending on several factors such as, among other things, location (county), the type of work performed, and the size of the business.

December 20, 2017

Arbitrating Employment Wage Cases

by Famighetti & Weinick

Many employers include an arbitration clause in their employment contracts. An employee who signs this contract, gives up his or her right to sue in court over any job-related issues that may arise such as claims for wrongful termination, minimum wage payment violations, and overtime pay violations. Today’s employment law blog discusses recent developments about the applicability of arbitration clauses to claims of unpaid wages and overtime in New York.

Employers like to include arbitration clauses because the arbitration process is generally a quicker and cheaper alternative to a proceeding in court. Yet, a worker recently disagreed with a court’s decision requiring that he use arbitration instead of filing his Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) claim in court.

On December 12, 2017, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals was asked to decide whether claims under unpaid wage and overtime claims underthe FLSA are in fact subject to arbitration.

November 28, 2017

Probable Cause for Disability Discrimination

by Famighetti & Weinick

On November 21, 2017, the New York State Division of Human Rights determined that probable cause exists to believe that an employer discriminated against an employee on the basis of perceived disability. Long Island employment lawyers Famighetti & Weinick PLLC filed the charge of discrimination against a Nassau County employer in the Spring 2017 on behalf of one of the workers.

Perceived Disability Discrimination

The New York State Human Rights Law prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of the employee having a disability. Oftentimes, the question arises as to what constitutes a disability under the Human Rights Law. Under the statute, a disability can be an actual disability which is a medical impairment which affects the exercise of a normal body function. For example, a person with diabetes has a medical condition which affects the body’s ability to use sugar, so a person with diabetes will likely be considered disabled under the discrimination statute.

November 21, 2017

Punitive Damages Under New York City Human Rights Law

by Famighetti & Weinick

The New York City Human Rights Law prohibits employment discrimination based on, among other things, an employee’s gender. The law has plainly provided for punitive damages against employers who violate the law. Punitive damages are generally available in cases as a way to dissuade others from engaging in similar unlawful conduct and to punish the wrongdoer. On November 20, 2017, the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest state court, settled the standard which courts should apply in deciding whether punitive damages should be allowed in a discrimination case.

Employment Discrimination Lawsuit in Federal Court

In Chauca v. Abraham, the employee was a physical therapy aide. She sued her employer for sex and pregnancy discrimination, under the federal law Title VII, under the New York State Human Rights Law, and under the New York City Human Rights Law. At trial, the employee’s lawyer asked the judge to instruct the jury to consider whether punitive damages were appropriate under the New York City Human Rights Law. The court applied Title VII’s punitive damages standard which requires the employee to show malice, reckless indifference, or an intent to violate the law. The court determined that the employee did not show any evidence of intent so the judge refused to instruct the jury to consider imposing punitive damages.

November 1, 2017

$39,541 Judgment Obtained for Worker

by Famighetti & Weinick

On October 25, 2017, Long Island employment lawyers Famighetti & Weinick, PLLC obtained a $39,541 judgment for their client, a former cook in a restaurant. The lawsuit, filed in Supreme Court, New York County, alleged that the restaurant did not pay the client overtime and failed to provide with her wage statements as required by New York Law.

New York Overtime Laws

In New York, employers are required to pay their employees overtime pay for all hours worked over 40 in a week. Generally, overtime is one and one half times the employee’s regular rate of pay. In F&W’s case, the employee worked as much as 75 hours per week, but was paid only a flat “salary” rate of $520 in cash. So, F&W argued that the $520 represented payment for only the first 40 hours worked in the week, meaning the employee was owed regular wages plus overtime wages for up to 35 hours per week. Justice Nancy Bannon agreed with F&W and further agreed that the employee was entitled to unpaid wages totaling $17,452 for the 6 months the employee worked for the restaurant.

October 19, 2017

Is Perceived Alcoholism a Disability?

by Famighetti & Weinick

Can an employer fire an employee if it believes the employee has bloodshot eyes and believes it is because the employee is abusing drugs when, in fact, the employee is suffering from allergies? The highest state court in New York recently said “YES!”

On October 17, 2017, in Makinen v. City of New York, the New York Court of Appeals decided that employees in New York City, could not sue an employer for disability discrimination when the employer mistakenly perceives the employee to be an alcoholic.

New York Disability Discrimination Laws

September 27, 2017

Long Island Employment Lawyer Matthew Weinick

by Famighetti & Weinick

Matthew Weinick is a Long Island employment lawyer and a founding partner of the Long Island employment law firm of Famighetti & Weinick, PLLC. Today’s employment law blog highlights Matt’s work and experience in the field of employment law.

Matt graduated cum laude from Hofstra Law School. While at Hofstra, Matt served as notes and comments editor of the Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal, which also published his article about workers’ rights. Matt interned for United States District Judge Denis R. Hurley while in law school.

After graduating from law school, Matt worked for the Nassau County Attorney’s Office where he was assigned to the General Litigation Bureau, handling employment law matters as well as “Constitutional torts” in which Matt defended Nassau County employees such as police officers and corrections officers, in lawsuits alleging violations of citizens’ Constitutional rights. Among the high profile cases Matt worked on was a lawsuit alleging the police department’s use of mounted police was unconstitutional and another case alleging Nassau County’s decision to post pictures of individuals arrested for DWI was unconstitutional.

September 27, 2017

Long Island Employment Lawyer Peter J. Famighetti

by Famighetti & Weinick

Peter J. Famighetti is a Long Island employment lawyer and a founding partner of the Long Island employment law firm of Famighetti & Weinick, PLLC. Today’s employment law blog highlights Peter’s work and experience in the field of employment law.

Peter attended Hofstra Law School and was admitted as an attorney in New York State in 2001. Upon graduating from Hofstra, Peter was hired by the Nassau County Attorney’s Office where he was assigned to the Labor and Employment Bureau. Peter defended Nassau County against employment lawsuits. Notable cases handled by Peter include a class action lawsuit alleging the Nassau County police department violated the federal Equal Pay Act and gender discrimination laws and he defended a lawsuit, which alleged the Nassau County police department’s policy setting age limitations on applicants violated federal laws.

In 2010, Peter entered private practice working for employment law firms in Nassau County. In private practice, Peter represented countless employees in matters ranging from sexual harassment to hostile work environments to wrongful terminations. Peter fought for his clients’ rights in arbitrations and mediations, as well as in the federal and state courts of New York and administrative agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and New York State Division of Human Rights (NYSDHR). In addition to the employment cases, Peter handled other civil rights cases, also. For instance, Peter obtained a plaintiff’s jury verdict in case alleging violations of his client’s First Amendment free speech rights and Fourth Amendment freedom from unlawful search and seizure rights.

September 20, 2017

Judge Grants FW’s Motion in Potential Class Action Case

by Famighetti & Weinick

Long Island employment lawyers, Famighetti & Weinick, PLLC, represented a Long Island limousine company accused in a class action lawsuit of not paying its employees’ tips and overtime. On September 15, 2017, a Nassau County Supreme Court justice granted F&W’s motion to dismiss the case. The situation is discussed below.

F&W’s client operates a limousine company. According to the plaintiff in the case, he alleged that the company did not pay its drivers proper overtime for the hours he, and other employees, worked over 40 in a week. The plaintiff further alleged that the company collected gratuities from its customers and told the customers that the tips would be given to the drivers, but that the company then kept the tips, instead of paying them to the drivers. Additionally, the plaintiff alleged his pay stubs did not meet the requirements of the New York Labor Law’s Wage Theft Prevention Act (WTPA). The plaintiff attempted to bring his claims as a class action, on behalf of himself and all of the limousine company’s drivers.

F&W partner and Long Island employment lawyer Matt Weinick filed a motion on behalf of the limousine company seeking to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety. Among other things, Weinick argued that the plaintiff’s last pay stub proved he was paid properly, that the overtime claim was otherwise not sufficiently stated and supported by facts in the complaint, that the allegations relating to the tip issue were not sufficiently stated in the complaint, and that since those claims failed, the wage statement claim was also required to be dismissed under the law.