Judge grants Conditional Certification of Collective Action in the Southern District of New York
Abraham and Sylvester v. Promise Home Care Agency, Inc.; Case No.: 18-cv-04502
As previously reported on this website, in Abraham and Sylvester v. Promise Home Care Agency, Inc. Case No.: 18-cv-04502, on August 3, 2018, Lead Plaintiffs, Ms. Abraham and Ms. Sylvester, on behalf of themselves, individually, and on behalf of all others similarly-situated, filed a collective action lawsuit in the United States District Court Southern District of New York against PROMISE HOME CARE AGENCY, INC. (“Promise Home Care, alleging deliberating violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) and the New York Comp. Codes, Rules, and Regulations (“NYCCRR”), including the failure of Defendants to compensate Plaintiffs for overtime wages. The claims of the case are referenced in our August 2018 blog post and are reviewed as follows:
- Plaintiffs have worked for Defendant – – a home health care staffing agency – – as in-home caregivers from February and April 2017, respectively, to the present;
- Both Plaintiffs’ primary duties as caregivers consisted of performing manually laborious tasks in providing services for the infirm, such as doing laundry, preparing meals, feeding, grooming, bathing, and accompanying patients to doctor’s appointments, and running other errands for patients;
- Defendant required both Plaintiffs to work over forty hours each week or virtually each week;
- However, for each workweek that Plaintiff Abraham worked, Defendant paid and continues to pay Plaintiff Abraham at the rate of $32.00 per hour for all hours worked;
- Similarly, for each workweek that Plaintiff Sylvester worked, Defendant paid and continues to pay Plaintiff Sylvester at the rate of $27.00 per hour for all hours worked;
Defendant violated and continue to violate Plaintiffs’ rights guaranteed to them by the overtime provisions of the FLSA, the NYLL and the NYCCRR. Additionally, Defendant has failed to provide Plaintiffs with accurate wage statements on each payday or with accurate wage notices at their time of hire displaying their overtime rates of pay, and further failed to pay Plaintiffs, manual workers, all of their earned wages on at least as frequently as a weekly basis, all as the NYLL requires.
Certification of Collective Action
In this case, pursuant to the request of the Plaintiff, the Judge reviewed claims that the Plaintiff brought forward alleging that there are additional workers in the same “class” (performing the same or similar duties) whose rights have been violated. On June 26, 2019, following oral argument, Plaintiffs’ motion for approval of a collection action was granted, allowing the case to proceed as a collective action enabling any current and former employees who were not paid properly to join the lawsuit and seek redress for Defendants’ failure to compensate them in accordance with the law.
If you or a person you know worked for the Defendants named in the lawsuit during the time period of July 12, 2016 – present or has information that may be relevant to this case, contact Borrelli & Associates, P.L.L.C. as soon as possible through one of our websites, www.employmentlawyernewyork.com, www.516abogado.com or any of our phone numbers: (516) 248-5550, (516) ABOGADO, and (212) 679-5000.