Categories: General Employment LawNew York Employment Law Case News

Baez and Santana v. Cayuga Home for Children; Case No.: 20-cv-02912

Judge grants Conditional Certification of Collective Action in the Southern District of New York

Baez and Santana v. Cayuga Home for Children; Case No.: 20-cv-02912

As previously reported on this website, in Baez et al v. Cayuga Home for Children; Case Number:1:20-cv-02912-MKV, on April 8, 2020, Lead Plaintiffs, Ms. Baez and Ms. Santana, on behalf of themselves, individually, and on behalf of all others similarly-situated, filed a collective action lawsuit in the United States District Court Southern District of New York against CAYUGA HOME FOR CHILDREN (“Defendant”), alleging deliberating violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) and the New York Comp. Codes, Rules, and Regulations (“NYCCRR”), including the failure of Defendants to compensate Plaintiffs for overtime wages. The claims of the case are referenced in our May 2020 blog post and are reviewed as follows:

Plaintiffs Baez and Santana have worked for Defendant – – an Auburn, New York, not-for-profit corporation operating in Manhattan that works to place foster children into foster homes – – as home finders from January 17, 2017 and October 11, 2016, respectively, through the present;
In their role as home finders, Plaintiffs meet with potential foster parents to coordinate the placement of foster children in the foster parents’ homes;
Defendant required both Plaintiffs to work over forty hours each week or virtually each week;
Defendant required Plaintiffs to be on-call once or twice a month, starting at 5:00 p.m. on Friday and ending at 5:00 a.m. the following Monday, during which time period Defendant requires Plaintiffs to be immediately available to handle various emergency situations that foster parents call into Defendant’s twenty-four hour service.

Defendant violated Plaintiffs’ rights guaranteed to them by the overtime provisions of the FLSA, the NYLL and the NYCCRR. Additionally, Defendant violated the NYLL by failing to provide Plaintiffs with accurate wage statements on each payday or with any wage notice at the time of their respective hires, let alone an accurate one.

Certification of Collective Action

In this case, pursuant to the request of the Plaintiffs, the Judge reviewed claims that the Plaintiffs brought forward alleging that there are additional workers in the same “class” (performing the same or similar duties) whose rights have been violated. On August 26, 2020, Plaintiffs’ motion for approval of a collection action was granted, allowing the case to proceed as a collective action enabling any current and former employees who were not paid properly to join the lawsuit and seek redress for Defendants’ failure to compensate them in accordance with the law.

If you or a person you know worked for the Defendants named in the lawsuit during the time period of April 8, 2014 – present or has information that may be relevant to this case, contact Borrelli & Associates, P.L.L.C. as soon as possible through one of our websites, www.employmentlawyernewyork.com, www.516abogado.com or any of our phone numbers: (516) 248-5550, (516) ABOGADO, and (212) 679-5000.