Penalties for Unpaid Wages in New York

Famighetti & Weinick — Wed, 30 May 2018 18:31:43 GMT

Employers in New York cannot willfully turn their backs to the state’s minimum wage and overtime laws and expect to get away with it. Courts or the Department of Labor are likely to impose hefty fines or penalties. Today’s employment law blog discusses the penalties employers on Long Island and in the rest of the state can face for willfully violating the law.

Both the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) set requirements for employers to follow including paying employees the minimum wage and overtime pay.

In 2010, seeking to provide workers with additional protection, former New York Governor Patterson signed the Wage Theft Prevention Act (the WTPA) into law which allows for the imposition of tougher penalties for wage theft violations.

For example, the WTPA increased the total amount of money that an employee could potentially recover for willful violations of the state’s wage and hour laws. This is referred to as liquidated damages. This term simply refers to an additional monetary award that an employee may be able to recover under the WTPA in addition to the unpaid wages award.

In fact, the changes allow an employee to recover double the amount of what he or she is owed by the employer. However, an employee can only recover liquidated damages if the employer violated the law in bad faith.

On April 6, 2018, in the case of Rana v. Islam, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued an employee friendly decision relating to wage theft. Rana filed a federal lawsuit alleging numerous violations of state and federal labor and human trafficking laws. In his lawsuit, Rana alleged that he was enslaved at the hands of former New York consul general of Bangladesh, Monirul Islam and his wife.

According to Rana, Islam and his wife successfully lured him into coming to the United States by falsely promising him “good working conditions” as a domestic worker in their Manhattan home, all while earning $3,000 monthly.

However, soon after arriving in the U.S., Rana learned that these promises were a far cry from the truth. Instead, Rana suffered eighteen months of horrific abuse and deplorable work conditions. For instance, according to the court’s decision, Rana was forced to work 16 to 20 hour days, seven days a week for 18 months without any compensation. Any attempt to ask for his wages or leave the apartment was followed by death threats and physical abuse. During this time Rana was also allegedly forced to sleep on the kitchen floor or in a storage room and was only allowed to eat expired or leftover food.

Based on the seriousness of these and other facts, the lower district court awarded Rana $922,597.31 in damages. This number included liquidated damages under both the NYLL for $114,577.64 and the FLSA for $66,062. Facing substantial penalties, Islam appealed the court’s damages order to New York’s highest federal court – the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Prior to the Rana decision, New York courts often disagreed about whether or not a successful plaintiff could recover liquidated damages under both the FLSA and NYLL for the same action. On appeal, the Second Circuit pointed this out.

In an attempt to clarify this unsettled area of the law while at the same time making it clear that the court was not agreeing with Islam’s factual challenges to the award, the Second Circuit held that double recovery was not permitted. However, the court decided that successful plaintiffs could recover the larger award.

Accordingly, the Second Circuit concluded that Rana was entitled to the NYLL award in the amount of $144,677.64, in addition to other types of damages he had been awarded, but not the $66,062.00 that the FLSA allowed in liquidated damages.

The Rana decision should serve as a wake-up call for New York’s employers and as a reminder that the Department of Labor, as well as New York courts, continue to take wage theft seriously.

The Long Island employment lawyers at Famighetti & Weinick PLLC are experienced in handling wage theft lawsuits in New York, including claims of unpaid wages or unpaid overtime. If you have any questions about the FLSA, the NYLL, or any damages that you may be entitled to for an employer failing to properly pay you, contact a Long Island employment lawyer at 631-352-0050 to schedule a free consultation.

Today’s Long Island employment law blog was written by Law Clerk Thalia Olaya.

Judge Recommends FW Client be paid $30,380

Famighetti & Weinick — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 20:36:08 GMT

In October 2015, Long Island employment lawyers, Famighetti & Weinick, PLLC, filed a lawsuit alleging that a Long Island gas station did not pay their client overtime for the 35 hours per week that he worked overtime. The firm also alleged that the gas station did not provide the client proper notice about his wages or proper wage statements when he was paid. On August 30, 2017, United States Magistrate Judge Anne Y. Shields recommended to District Judge Spatt, that he order the gas station to pay $30,380 in damages, and $12,370 to F&W, for their work on the case.

Judge Recommends Answer Be Stricken and Default Entered

In the gas station case, F&W filed a lawsuit to which the defendants appeared in and submitted a response, called an answer. However, in the course of the lawsuit, the defendants or their lawyer failed to obey court orders, failed to respond to motions, and failed to participate in the discovery process. Further, after F&W filed an “amended complaint,” which sought to add a defendant, the defendants failed to respond to the amended complaint by submitting an answer. Magistrate Judge Shields recommended that the defendants’ existing answer be stricken and that a default judgment be entered against all the defendants because of their exhibited “willful” failure to defend themselves in the lawsuit.

Failure to Pay Overtime

The Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law require that employers pay employees one and one half times the employee’s regular rate of pay for each hour that the employee works over 40 in a week. In F&W’s gas station case, the plaintiff worked 75 hours per week for nearly a year. The plaintiff alleged that he was not paid overtime for the 35 hours per week that he worked over 40. The Judge agreed and recommended that the plaintiff be paid $8,190 in actual damages and $8,190 in liquidated damages.

Wage Statements and Wage Notices

New York’s Wage Theft Prevention Act requires that employers provide written notice to employees of their wage amounts upon hire and provide wage statements detailing hours and pay rates at each pay period. The law provides that employers must pay statutory damages to employees when the law is violated. In the gas station case, Magistrate Judge Shields determined that the plaintiff was not provided any of the notices or statements required under the law and so he was entitled to statutory damages totaling $14,000.

Attorneys Fees

Both the New York Labor Law and the Fair Labor Standards Act allow attorneys to be awarded fees when they successfully represent clients in cases alleging violations of the laws. To determine the fees to be awarded, courts first determine the reasonable hourly rates for the attorneys who worked on the case, and then the court determines the reasonable amount of hours for attorneys to have worked on the case.

In the gas station, Magistrate Judge Shields determined that $350 per hour is a reasonable hourly rate for Long Island employment lawyers Matthew Weinick and Peter J. Famighetti. The Judge further determined that the amount of time they recorded as having worked on the case was reasonable. By multiplying the hourly rate by the number of hours, the Court recommended that F&W be awarded $11,970 in attorneys’ fees.

Long Island Wage and Hour lawyers

Magistrate Judge Shields’s order will be sent to District Judge Arthur D. Spatt for review. The plaintiff and defendant will have an opportunity to object to Magistrate Judge Shields’s recommendation, and then Judge Spatt will issue an order.

If you have questions about unpaid wages or overtime, contact the Long Island employment lawyers of Famighetti & Weinick, PLLC at 631-352-0050 or visit our website at https://www.linycemploymentlaw.com.