New York Employment Attorney Blog

Today, the United States Department of Labor announced that the Wage and Hour Division has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement and interpret certain statutory amendments to the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"). Specifically, the regulations are intended to address the recent amendments to the FMLA, which expanded military family leave provisions, as well as incorporating a special eligibility provision for airline flight crew employees.

Middle School Principal Katherine Mulderig filed a sexual discrimination complaint in March 2011 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that Lake Placid, New York School Superintendant, Dr. Randy Richards, made sexually discriminatory comments to her while proposing a job change. Ms. Mulderig plans to file a civil action in federal court in early 2012, based upon the sexual discrimination allegations asserted in her EEOC Charge of Discrimination. According to press reports, Mr. Richards told Ms. Mulderig in February 2011 that he wanted her to switch from middle school principal to elementary school principal because he wanted someone "bitchier to govern the bitchy" female teachers in the school. See Principal Files Discrimination Complaint.

Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) introduced a bill amending the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to cover over-the-road bus drivers and requiring that they be paid overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek. Currently, over-the-road bus drivers are exempt from the maximum hours provisions of the FLSA. The bill, The Driver Fatigue Prevention Act (S. 1977), revises the FLSA, to eliminate the overtime exemption, which applies to "any employee with respect to whom the Secretary of Transportation has power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service." As a result, over-the-road bus drivers will be entitled to overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 in a given workweek.

An 'over-the-road bus' "means a bus characterized by an elevated passenger deck located over a baggage compartment."

Today, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division released three new fact sheets addressing the topic of retaliation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA).

Each of these statutes contain provisions prohibiting an employer from retaliating against an employee for asserting rights covered by each of the statutes.

Fact Sheet #77A, Prohibiting Retaliation Under the FLSA, provides general information concerning the FLSA’s prohibition of retaliating against any employee who has filed a complaint or cooperated in an investigation and is available on the WHD website at http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs77a.htm.

Fact Sheet #77B, Protection for Individuals under the FMLA, provides general information concerning the Family and Medical Leave Act’s (FMLA) prohibition of retaliating against an individual for exercising his or her rights or participating in matters protected under the FMLA and is available on the WHD website at http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs77b.htm.

Fact Sheet #77C, Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA), provides general information concerning MSPA’s prohibition of discrimination against a migrant or seasonal agricultural worker who has filed a complaint or participated in any proceeding under or related to MSPA and is available on the WHD website at http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs77c.htm

Recently, a bill was introduced in the Senate (S.1747), which seeks to expand the scope of the Fair Labor Standards Acts' current exemption for computer employees. The bill, which is referred to as the "Computer Professional Update" Act ("CPU Act"), attempts to modernize the computer employee exemption by making it applicable to employees, who perform computer-related tasks and work that simply did not exist in the 1990s when the exemption was last modified.

The proposed CPU Act comes in response to the evolution of computer technology, and seeks to take into account changes in the use of computers. For example, the CPU Act seeks to incorporate "information technology" jobs, and would refer to work relating to the internet, intranets, and networks, among other things.

If passed, the CPU Act would result in fewer computer employees being entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

On November 15, 2011, a group of Brooklyn, New York residents filed a federal civil action against the Atlantic Yard Development Company LLC, Forest City Ratner Companies LLC, Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development and others, alleging that they should have been paid for work they performed pursuant to a pre-apprentice training program. The progam promised jobs to anyone, who essentially agreed to work for free on a building renovation project in Staten Island, New York.

The plaintiffs worked for two months for the developers and ultimately were not given the jobs that they were promised.

Continue reading "New York "Interns" Seek Unpaid Wages for Hard Labor" »

On November 30, 2011, Salvatore G. Gangemi will be speaking at a continuing legal education webinar conducted by Strafford Publications entitled, Employee Leave Under the FMLA and ADA. For more information, you can visit Strafford's website.

A former Long Island, New York police lieutenant was awarded $350,000 in damages by a jury in her lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Sherry Hines was employed by the Village of Hempstead, New York, as a police officer. During her employment, she filed sex and race discrimination complaints. Ultimately, she was passed over for promotions and ultimately demoted to a desk job in retaliation for her complaints.

The Eastern District of New York jury found in her favor after a four day trial, which concluded on October 6, 2011.

Salvatore G. Gangemi has been named by Super Lawyers list as one of the top attorneys in New York State for 2011. No more than 5 percent of the lawyers in the state are selected by Super Lawyers. Digital version of Super Lawyers 2011 Magazine.

Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The annual selections are made using a rigorous multi-phased process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates, and peer reviews by practice area.

The Super Lawyers lists are published nationwide in Super Lawyers magazines and in leading city and regional magazines across the country. Super Lawyers magazines also feature editorial profiles of attorneys who embody excellence in the practice of law. For information about Super Lawyers, go to superlawyers.com.

The first Super Lawyers list was published in 1991 and by 2009 the rating service had expanded nationwide. In February 2010 Super Lawyers was acquired by Thomson Reuters the world's leading source of intelligent information for business and professionals.

Two interns filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York City alleging that Fox Searchlight Pictures, the producer of "Black Swan," misclassified them as unpaid interns despite that they engaged in work, typically performed by paid employees. Among other things, the interns alleged that they performed work such as making coffee, taking out trash, and handling lunch orders.

We wrote about the issue of misclassification of workers as unpaid interns in our May 25, 2010 blog, Department of Labor Issues Guidelines on Unpaid Internships. To be valid, an internship must provide an educational experience, and not just amount to an unpaid job. In recent years, both the United States Department of Labor and New York State Department of Labor have scrutinized internships to make sure that they are legitimate.

Both federal and New York law require that employees be paid the minimum wage for hours worked, as well as overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 in a given workweek. Thus, if the court rules that the interns, who worked at Fox Searchlight Pictures, were really employees, the movie studio will be liable for failure to pay minimum wage and overtime pay.

On September 15, 2011, a class of current and former exotic dancers filed a claim against The Executive Club LLC d/b/a The Penthouse Executive Club, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging wage and hour violations. Specifically, the lawsuit against the New York club alleges that the dancers were not paid the applicable minimum wage and overtime pay. In addition, the dancers allege that their tips were misappropriated by the club's management. The complaint asserts claims under the New York Labor Law as well as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

A critical issue in the case is whether the dancers were properly classified as independent contractors. The dancers allege that they were actually "employees" based upon the club's exercise of control over their work. If the court finds that the dancers were, in fact, common law employees, then the New York Labor Law and Fair Labor Standards Act will apply to the dancers, and could result in liability for unpaid wages.

On September 14, 2011, Salvatore G. Gangemi was quoted in an article entitled, How To Quit Without Giving Notice, which appeared in a Wall Street Journal Digital Network publication. The article can be accessed from the Firm News section of our website by clicking the following link: How to Quit Without Giving Notice.