Loren Lee Forrest Jr. is a Partner in Holland & Knight's New York office

In Rios v. BBQ Chicken Don Alex Inc., et. al., 2018 WL264512, (E.D.N.Y. Jan. 1, 2018) in an uncontested action, the plaintiff, a waitress, alleged that the defendants' restaurants in Queens, New York, and one individual defendant violated the minimum wage, overtime and tip credit provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the New York Labor Law (NYLL). The plaintiff also alleged that the defendants violated the NYLL's spread-of-hours premium provision and New York's required wage-notice and wage-statement requirements. All of the defendants failed to appear or otherwise respond to the plaintiff's complaint. Consequently, plaintiff prevailed on nearly all of her claims, as the court found that she was paid only $3 per hour, was not notified that her employer was taking the tip credit, was not paid overtime, and was not given the required New York wage notice and wage statements. The court found that the individual defendant was liable because he had the power to hire and fire employees, supervised and controlled employees, and determined the rate and method of employees' compensation. The employer prevailed only on the plaintiff's spread-of-hours claim as the plaintiff's work schedule itself failed to make out a claim for violation of the NYLL's spread of hours. For the employer's violation of the FLSA and NYLL, occurring over a period of about 22 months, the plaintiff sought a judgment of about $100,000 and received an award of about $92,000 against her employers and supervisor, jointly and severally. Notably, the statutory liquidated damages were nearly half of the total amount awarded (more than $43,000). Employers should keep in mind that both New York and federal law require double damages as a right, which a court must award, once a violation is found.

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