Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss, LLP has helped countless employees recover their hard-earned wages when unscrupulous employers have skirted their obligations under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law. The wage and hour cases that our firm has litigated have not only resulted in the recovery of our clients’ wages, plus liquidated damages for additional recovery—our cases have also set important, appellate-level precedents that to this day are cited by judges to advance employees’ cases.
Our firm is known for not just our attorneys’ extensive expertise and experience in wage and hour litigation, but also for its tenacity. While the trend in wage and hour cases is generally to settle early on in the litigation, our firm advocates relentlessly and vigorously in order to secure the best possible outcomes for our clients.
We represent employees across a wide range of industries and regardless of their immigration status.
What Are Wage and Hour Violations?
Violations of the wage and hour laws often present themselves as simple failures to pay employees at the basic minimum wage rate, or at the time-and-a-half rate for all hours worked over forty in a given week. But often it is not that simple. Other violations may be harder to detect, in part because some aspects of these laws are not as well known. A few common examples include:
Spread of Hours/Split
Shift Pay
In New York, employers must pay an extra hour at the basic minimum wage rate for certain employees whose end of work is more than 10 hours after the start of their workday or who work multiple shifts in a day with an unpaid (non-meal) break in between.
Misappropriation
of Tips
Particularly problematic in workplaces like restaurants and salons, some employers try to keep a portion of employee tips for themselves or give them to ineligible workers.
Failure to Pay at the
Agreed Upon Rate
A New York employer must pay its employees at the rate it said it would, even if that rate is above the minimum wage.
Time Shaving and Off
the Clock Violations
Some employers will try to shave time off employees’ records or have employees work off the clock, but employers must pay employees for all their time “suffered or permitted” to work (including certain travel time).
Frequency of Pay
Certain workers must be paid at frequencies specified under New York law, and an employer’s failure to pay them on time can create liability.
Unlawful Deductions
Some employers may try to make illegal deductions from employees’ wages, such as for damaged company property or for uniforms.
Retaliation
An employer cannot penalize employees who speak up about their rights under the wage and hour laws.
These are but a few examples of how an employer can violate the wage and hour laws. Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss, LLP has successfully litigated all of these violations, and many more.
What Are Class and Collection Actions?
Many wage and hour lawsuits are brought on behalf of groups of workers who have been subjected to the same unlawful practices, in order to curb systemic abuses by an employer instead of piecemeal representation of one plaintiff at a time. Class actions (which are brought under the New York Labor Law) and collective actions (which are brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act) are the procedural mechanisms by which groups of employees can assert their claims against the same employer together in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss, LLP has deep experience as counsel in class and collective actions.
Contact us to discuss your legal needs.