Ruggiero v. The Springs Tavern, Inc., and Charlene Desmet, individually, and Daniel Desmet, individually, Civil Case No.: 19-cv-02429-GRB-AYS

New Action filed in the Eastern District of New York

Ruggiero v. The Springs Tavern, Inc., and Charlene Desmet, individually, and Daniel Desmet, individually, Civil Case No.: 19-cv-02429-GRB-AYS

On April 26, 2019, Plaintiff Ruggiero filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court Eastern District of New York against THE SPRINGS TAVERN, INC. (“Springs Tavern” or “the Restaurant”), and CHARLENE DESMET, individually, and DANIEL DESMET, individually, (together, with the Restaurant, as “Defendants”), alleging upon knowledge as to himself and his own actions and upon information and belief as to all other matters as follows:

Plaintiff worked for Defendants – – a restaurant and bar in East Hampton, New York, as well as its two owners and day-to-day overseers – – as a chef from March 13, 2017 to February 28, 2018.  In this role, Plaintiff’s main duties consisted of cooking and preparing meals and running the operations of the kitchen to serve Springs Tavern’s patrons their food orders.   Throughout his employment, Plaintiff’s regular work schedule was six days per week, from 1:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. during the spring/winter months from March through April and November through February, and from 10:00 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. during the summer/fall months from May through October.  During his entire employment, Defendants never permitted Plaintiff to take a scheduled or uninterrupted break during his shift. 

Throughout Plaintiff’s employment, Defendants willfully failed to pay Plaintiff the wages lawfully due to him under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”). Specifically, Defendants misclassified Plaintiff as exempt from the FLSA’s and the NYLL’s overtime requirements, required Plaintiff to work over forty hours in a week, and thus failed to compensate him at any rate of pay, let alone at the statutorily-required overtime rate of time and one-half his regular rate for any hours that Plaintiff worked in a week in excess of forty.  Additionally, in further violation of the NYLL and the N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs., Defendants failed to pay Plaintiff a spread-of-hours compensation of one hour’s pay at the minimum wage rate on those days when his spread of hours exceeded ten during a given day; provide Plaintiff with accurate wage statements on each payday; and provide Plaintiff with an accurate wage notice at the time of hire.

If any individual is or has previously been an employee of the Defendants named in the lawsuit and/or has information that may be relevant to this case, please contact Borrelli & Associates, P.L.L.C. as soon as possible through one of our websites, www.employmentlawyernewyork.com or www.516abogado.com, or any of our phone numbers: (516) 248–5550, (516) ABOGADO, or (212) 679–5000.