Quinones, Jr., v. UMVLT LLC, d/b/a Aspiris., and Joshua Hamel, individually, and Michael Steffe, individually, Civil Case No.:21-cv-184

New Action filed in the Southern District Of New York

Quinones, Jr., v. UMVLT LLC, d/b/a Aspiris., and Joshua Hamel, individually, and Michael Steffe, individually, Civil Case No.:21-cv-184 

On January 8, 2021, Plaintiff Quinones, Jr. filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court Southern District of New York against UMVLT LLC d/b/a ASPIRIS, (“Aspiris”), JOSHUA HAMEL, individually (“Hamel”), and MICHAEL STEFFE, individually (“Steefe”, together, where appropriate, 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 New York City-based information technology company and its co-managing members/day-to-day overseers – – as the Director of Educational Technology from June 1, 2015 through October 25, 2019.  As described below, throughout the entirety of 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 routinely required Plaintiff to work in excess of forty hours in a work week but failed to compensate Plaintiff at the statutorily-required overtime rate of one and one-half times his regular rate of pay for all hours that he worked per week in excess of forty.  Rather, Defendants paid Plaintiff on an hourly basis at his regular rate for all hours worked, including those worked beyond forty each week.

Defendants further violated the NYLL and the N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. (“NYCRR”) by failing to provide Plaintiff with accurate wage statements on each payday; failing to provide Plaintiff with any wage notice upon his hire, let alone accurate ones; and unlawfully making deductions from Plaintiff’s pay by separate transaction.  Moreover, after Plaintiff complained to Defendants about their failure to pay him overtime compensation and to reimburse Plaintiff for various expenses that he incurred in the course of his employment, thereby taking unlawful deductions from his pay, Defendants retaliated by terminating Plaintiff’s employment, in violation of the anti-retaliation provisions of the FLSA and the NLYY.

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.