ABC, Marvel to Pay $1.75M to Settle TV, Movie Set Pay Claims

ABC Studios and Marvel Television Inc. will pay $1.75 million to settle claims it didn’t pay overtime to set workers, according to an agreement that received final court approval.

“They’ve taken steps to make it better, both the working conditions and the pay structure,” Sara Wyn Kane, an attorney for the workers, told Bloomberg Law Dec. 15. “They agreed to send settlement checks to everyone in the settlement class whether they submitted a claim form or not.”
About 500 parking production assistants will share the settlement, Kane said. A parking production assistant ensures an area where the crew will film the next day remains blocked off to the public. They said they were paid a fixed amount per day, rather than an hourly wage, which meant they didn’t receive overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a week. The class members worked on the sets of movies and TV shows including “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones,” and “The Fosters.”
Kane’s firm filed class actions on behalf of parking production assistants who worked for other companies in New York, Kane said. Some of them have settled and some remain open, she said.
“We are pleased to have reached a settlement that is fair and reasonable to all parties,” the companies said in a statement Dec. 15.
Kane, Robert Valli Jr., and James Vagnini with Valli Kane & Vagnini LLP in Garden City, N.Y., represented the workers.
Sara Tomezsko and Stephen Sonnenberg with Paul Hastings LLP in New York represented the studios.
The case is Muhammed v. Prodco, Inc. , S.D.N.Y., No. 1:16-cv-04133, final settlement approval 12/14/17 .
Written by John Steingart
Read the original article from Bloomberg Law