Worker Settles Overtime Suit Against Home Remodeler

By Caleb Drickey/Law360 · 2023-10-16 19:49:04 -0400 ·  Listen to article

A worker who accused a home remodeling firm of misclassifying him as an overtime-exempt, salaried employee asked a New York federal court Monday to sign off on an individual settlement to his wage action.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Diane Gujarati, ex-PHRG Management LLC remodeling consultant Sean Wachter said that a proposed $11,500 settlement to individual age claims would make him whole for withheld back wages and was a fair resolution to disputed claims.

The total settlement equates to more than 100% of what the plaintiff could have recovered under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law, Wachter said, adding: “The proposed settlement agreement is both fair and reasonable.”

Under the terms of the deal, Wachter would receive approximately $6,500 after the payment of attorney fees and expenses. That sum, the worker said, outpaced the roughly $2,400 unpaid overtime wage bill he racked up during his tenure at the company and amounted to roughly 55% of his total potential damages figure.

That return was fair, Wachter said, in light of the risks of further litigation. The worker noted that his former employer maintained its belief that he had been properly classified as an overtime-exempt outside sales worker and contested the number of overtime hours he worked.

“The settlement alleviates plaintiff’s risk of a lower recovery or no recovery at all,” the worker said.

Wachter’s attorneys, meanwhile, would receive an above-benchmark 40% cut of the total settlement fund, plus roughly $230 in expenses, for a total of approximately $4,700. Although Wachter noted that the Eastern District of New York generally limits attorney awards to 33% of a worker’s return, he said that the Second Circuit dissuaded district courts from placing ceilings on fee awards in 2020’s Fisher v. SD Protection Inc. 

He also argued that the proposed fee sat below a nearly $9,500 lodestar figure and was thus reasonable on its face.

Wachter accused the company of violating the FLSA and NYLL in a proposed class and collective action filed in November 2022. In his complaint, he alleged that he should have received time-and-a-half overtime wages instead of a flat, $1,000-per-week salary to compensate him for his up-to-60-hour workweeks.

Representatives of the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

Wachter is represented by Alexander White of Valli Kane & Vagnini LLP.

PHRG is represented by Anthony Mingione of Blank Rome LLP.

The case is Wachter v. PHRG Management LLC, case number 2:22-cv-07155, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

–Additional reporting by Isaac Monterose. Editing by Nick Petruncio.

See the article from Law360 here.

Full 5th Circ. To Examine Employer-Friendly Title VII Rule

The family behind a massive Brooklyn Navy Yards film studio complex stands accused of stiffing local partners out of $50 million in profits, a new lawsuit contends.

Steiner Studios — where films such as Steven Spielberg’s”West Side Story” and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Tick Tick Boom!” were filmed — has been named in a civil suit filed by a group of local entrepreneurs who says they developed the complex then were cut out of profits, court records show.

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Brooklyn Movie Studio Shut Out $50M Profits From Partners

The family behind a massive Brooklyn Navy Yards film studio complex stands accused of stiffing local partners out of $50 million in profits, a new lawsuit contends.

Steiner Studios — where films such as Steven Spielberg’s”West Side Story” and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Tick Tick Boom!” were filmed — has been named in a civil suit filed by a group of local entrepreneurs who says they developed the complex then were cut out of profits, court records show.

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Black New Yorkers Strike Back

Black New Yorkers strike back at city program that seized their properties for developers

The plaintiffs say the program unfairly aided gentrification and pushed Black and Latino residents out of their homes and neighborhoods.

Sherlivia Thomas-Murchison’s mother worked for nearly 25 years to make sure her family had a permanent home in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

The home of her mother, Margaret Blow, was in a co-op building, where Thomas-Murchison was a shareholder, on Madison Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Thomas-Murchison owned her apartment, as well as an apartment she and her siblings inherited after their mother died.

But in 2018, she learned that the city had signed the building’s deed over to a partnering developer. It meant she and her two children — like her neighbors in the eight-unit building — were without a home.

Read the full story on NBC News here.

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Plaintiffs Firm Slams Company With 5 Lawsuits Alleging Race Discrimination, Wage Violations

A national chemical distribution company has been hit with five federal lawsuits since last year by current and former employees, alleging wage-and-hour theft and racial discrimination against its black workers.
The latest lawsuit against Univar USA, filed this week in a federal court in Houston, claims that two drivers, Elton Wilson and Michael Roberts, were regularly passed up for promotions,  compared to their white and Hispanic co-workers, and were treated aggressively by white supervisors throughout their tenure.
The Houston lawsuit follows four filed against the company by Valli Kane & Vagnini since last September.
The complaints allege supervisors and co-workers used racial slurs to refer to former and current employees. They say staff displayed threatening behavior in the office, including hanging a stuffed monkey from a noose over a black worker’s desk, and writing offensive graffiti on bathroom walls.
The lawsuits claim these actions were part of a corporate culture in which black employees were consistently overlooked for advancement opportunities, and retaliated against when they complained. A class action suit in Georgia claims the company did not pay a group of 10 former and current workers for overtime pay they should have received.
Jeff Carr, senior vice president and general counsel and secretary for Univar, called the cases meritless. A team from Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, led by shareholder Eva Turner, represents the company.
“Most of the allegations are vague and amorphous, and although they may be enough to satisfy the liberal pleading requirements, they do not form the basis for a successful lawsuit,” Carr said in a statement. “Univar has and will vigorously defend itself against these cases.”
Similar claims—about the use of nooses, racial slurs by supervisors and fellow workers, and other hostile behavior—have been the subject of federal lawsuits in the last year by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other private attorneys on behalf of black workers. However, while gender discrimination charges filed by the EEOC soared this year, racial charges sunk, according to the latest data from the agency.
“It seems the issues of racial discrimination are not isolated, but rather it is apparent there is a pattern all the way up the chain,” Vagnini said of the lawsuits against Univar. He said he has many cases pending around the country for similar hostile work environments against black workers, where he said employers feel disinterested in solving racial discrimination issues.
The first lawsuit, filed in Dallas federal court, on behalf of workers Kethenus Gill and Raymond Forman, received some attention from local news stations. This prompted other workers in Univar operations around the country to reach out to the plaintiffs firm, Valli Kane & Vagnini partner James Vagnini said in an interview Friday.
Vagnini said he received calls from Georgia about a similar racial discrimination case and another that alleged an overtime violation for a group of workers, and then the Houston workers followed.
“These cases show that Univar’s response toward these issues lacked any serious approach to resolve the problems,” said Vagnini, who has not ruled out a class action against Univar for the discrimination claims.
Kim Dickens, Univar’s senior vice president and chief human resources officer, said that the company is “built on a foundation of respect,” reinforced every day at the company.
— By Erin Mulvaney
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IHOP Sued After 4 Muslim Managers Are Fired

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against IHOP and a local franchise owner on Tuesday, claiming that the restaurant owners fired four managers across the Metroplex in 2010 because they are Muslim. The attorneys for the four managers said that their clients are still unemployed because of the damage done to their reputations.
The managers worked at IHOP locations in Plano, Burleson, Fort Worth and Arlington — all owned by Anthraper Investments.
“It became very clear to them that they were no longer wanted,” explained attorney James Vagnini, who represents the men in their lawsuit. “One by one, over the course of about four to five months, each of them was fired.”
According to the lawsuit, the managers had “performed their jobs without incident” for anywhere between seven to 14 years, enduring harassment about of their religion. “On 9/11, they would get an email from the owner of Anthraper Investments saying, ‘Lay low, it’s 9/11.’ Comments referring to Arabs as dogs. That Arab men don’t treat women fairly,” said Vagnini.
The lawsuit claims that the situation got worse in 2010. During a meeting, a new district manager allegedly said, “We’re going to let these people go and have new faces coming in.” By the end of the year, all four Muslim managers were fired. According to the lawsuit, each manager was being fired for a performance issue.
“They’ve been humiliated beyond anything,” said Vagnini. “I’ve seen 40- and 50-year-old-men break down and cry talking about how they have to explain to their kids in college that they can’t afford the next semester because they don’t have the job they had.”
The plaintiffs filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and an investigation completed in January found “reasonable cause to believe that… Arabs were discriminatorily harassed and discharged based on… national origin.” Now, attorneys are suing, hoping that the company will change its ways.
A spokesperson for IHOP said, “We have a long history of supporting diversity in all aspects of our business. Our franchisee believes the allegations are without merit and looks forward to the fair conclusion of this matter.”
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