$142,500.00 – Tejada v. Park Sanford Owners Corp. and Impact Real Estate Management, Inc., Case No: 17-cv-4523, Eastern District of New York

Tejada v. Park Sanford Owners Corp. and Impact Real Estate Management, Inc., Case No: 17-cv-4523, Eastern District of New York
$142,500.00 – Action for Overtime Compensation and Retaliation – Firm represented an on-site superintendent against his former employer, a shareholder-owned residential apartment co-operative and its management company. The complaint in this matter alleged that Defendants required Plaintiff to work in excess of forty hours each week, yet Defendants failed to compensate Plaintiff at any rate of pay, let alone at the statutorily-required rate of time and one-half his regular rate of pay for any overtime hours. Thus, Defendants violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) by failing to pay Plaintiff overtime wages legally due to him. Furthermore, the complaint alleged that Plaintiff regularly complained about his intense workload and lack of overtime pay. In response, Defendants retaliated against Plaintiff by increasing his workload and requiring him to pay any staff that Defendants hired to assist him and to purchase many supplies for the building’s repairs out of his own pay. Thus, Defendants violated the New York Labor Law by unlawfully deducting expenses from Plaintiff’s wages through separate transactions. Finally, when Plaintiff became unable to continue paying others to help him with his work, Defendants increased their retaliation by excessively disciplining Plaintiff and threatening to evict him and his family from their apartment in the building in which Defendants required that Plaintiff live to perform his job duties. Subsequently, Plaintiff was forced to separate his employment, resulting in his constructive discharge in further violation of the FLSA. After negotiation, the case culminated in a settlement in the amount of $142,500.00. Michael J. Borrelli, Alexander T. Coleman, and Michael R. Minkoff handled the matter on behalf of the Firm.