Stephens v. Create Restaurants NY Inc., and NYC 004 213 E 45th St NY LLC, Civil Case No.:21-cv-05846

New Action filed in the Southern District of New York

Stephens v. Create Restaurants NY Inc., and NYC 004 213 E 45^th St NY LLC, Civil Case No.:21-cv-05846 

On July 7, 2021, Plaintiff Stephens filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against CREATE RESTAURENTS NY INC. (“Create”), and NYC 004 213 E 45^TH ST NY LLC (“NYC”, and together with Create, 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 – – two nominally distinct entities that together operate as a single enterprise to run Aburyia Kinnosuke, a Japanese restaurant in Manhattan- – – as a “Sous Chef” from September 21, 2018, until on or about June 3, 2019.  As described below, throughout the entirety of his employment, Defendants willfully failed to pay Plaintiff the overtime 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 federal and New York overtime laws due to Plaintiff’s nominal title as Sous Check, required Plaintiff to work – – and Plaintiff did work – – in excess of forty hours each week, or virtually each week, but paid Plaintiff a flat salary that operated by law to cover only Plaintiff’s first forty hours worked per week.  Defendants thus failed to compensate Plaintiff at any rate of pay, let alone at the statutorily-required overtime rate of one and one-half times his regular rate for each hour that Plaintiff worked per week in excess of forty.  Additionally, in further violation of the NYLL and the N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. (“NYCRR”), throughout his employment, Defendants failed to pay Plaintiff a spread of hours premium when his shift exceeded ten hours in a day from beginning to end.  Moreover, throughout his entire employment, Defendants failed to provide Plaintiff with an accurate wage statement on each payday, and also failed to provide Plaintiff with an accurate wage notice at the time of his hire, both as the NYLL required.

Furthermore, as described below, also throughout the entirety of Plaintiff’s employment, Defendants, through the actions of Plaintiff’s supervisors and coworkers, subjected Plaintiff, who is African American, to an egregious hostile work environment, as week as disparate treatment, on the basis of, or at least motivated by, Plaintiff’s race.  Then finally, after Plaintiff opposed this unlawful discriminatory conduct, Defendants retaliated by ratcheting up the hostile work environment and terminating Plaintiff’s employment.  All of the conduct described is in gross violation of Section 1981, Title VII, the New York State Human Rights Law(“NYSHRL”), and the New York City Human Rights Law (“NYCHRL”).

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.