New York Retaliation Claims Based on Overtime Pay Complaints are Now Kosher in NY
A New York City judge has held that two beauty salon workers can sue their employer for retaliating against them after they complained about overtime pay. The Court held that prior rulings to the contrary were wrong. See the article entitled NY Court Permits Retaliation Action Based on Overtime. In a separate federal case back in 2007, Higueros v. New York State Catholic Health Plan, 526 F. Supp. 2d 342 (SDNY), the court expressed the same view that retaliation claims under the NY Labor Code are viable. While it possible that the cases could be reversed, it seems unlikely. I suspect that retaliation claims will be allowed in overtime pay cases in NY. It only makes sense that an employee should be able to sue if they are retaliated against for requesting overtime pay. Moreover, retaliation laws are being strengthened and expanded as the courts see these laws as a vital part of the overall employment law framework.
At our law firm, we frequently talk to employees who are upset because their employers refuse to provide overtime pay. Most everyone we talk to is afraid of retaliation as most people depend on their jobs to survive. They cannot risk getting fired for asking about overtime pay. Fear of retaliation is probably one of the reasons that overtime pay violations are so widespread - people are afraid to complain. Wage violations are so common that the Obama administration has made overtime pay one of its causes and increased the staff at the Department of Labor.
This ruling in NY allowing retaliation claims in overtime cases is long overdue and hopefully the appellate courts will agree.
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