Skip to main content

One to Keep An Eye On: Guzman v. Party City Corporation (U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York)


Is the party over?  Perhaps, at least according to a recent lawsuit filed against Party City in which it is alleged that the company violated New York law when it failed to pay workers on time - allegedly paying workers bi weekly rather than weekly.

The lawsuit, filed at the end of January, alleges that a group of workers in New York routinely unpacked and sorted inventory, reshelved returned items, stocked aisles, and swept and mopped the floor.  These workers claim they were paid bi weekly rather than weekly.  According to the lawsuit, New York law requires that manual laborers must be paid weekly.  (Clerical and other workers must be paid at least twice a month, according to New York law.)  Exceptions to the weekly pay stipulation for manual workers can be made for large employers in the state, so long as certain conditions are met and the New York Department of Labor approves the exemption request.

Party City has yet to respond to the lawsuit but this is an interesting one for readers to track.  Does stocking shelves, cleaning the store, and related tasks qualify as manual labor?  I am not so sure, but I think it is likely that this will be a fact intensive inquiry that will turn on some specific details.  Stay tuned.


For a copy of the complaint:  https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21196064-hyvtol-show_temp

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations
Post a Comment
Read more

NLRB: Former Employee Cannot Be Barred From Work Premises After Filing Wage Suit

MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC - NLRB Facts :  MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC d/b/a Grand Sierra Resort & Casino ("GSR") operated a facility that included a hotel, casino, restaurant, clubs, bars, and a pool which were all open to the general public.  Tiffany Sargent ("Sargent") was briefly employed by GSR as a "beverage supervisor" in December of 2012.  After her employment ended, Sargent continued to socialize at one of the clubs.  GSR had a long standing practice of allowing former employees to patronize its facility and did not prohibit Sargent from doing so.  In June of 2013, Sargent and another employee filed a class and collective action against GSR for alleged unpaid wages, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Nevada law.  In July of 2014, GSR denied Sargent access to an event at one of the clubs.  GSR followed up with a letter and stated that with the on-going litigation (from the wage suit), it decided to bar Sargent from the premises. ...
1 comment
Read more