Judge grants Conditional Certification of Collective Action in the Eastern District of New York | Ramirez-Marin v. JD Classic Builders Corp. and George Roth

Ramirez-Marin v. JD Classic Builders Corp. and George Roth, an individual Case No.: 1:16-cv-05584-DLI-RER
As previously reported on this website, in Ramirez-Marin v. JD Classic Builders Corp, et al., on October 6, 2016, Lead Plaintiff Ernesto Ramirez-Marin, on behalf of himself and those similarly situated, filed a class and collective action lawsuit against JD Classic Builders Corp and George Roth, individually, alleging willful violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”), and the New York Comp. Codes, Rules, and Regulations (“NYCCRR”), including the failure of Defendants to compensate Plaintiff for overtime wages. The factual allegations of the case are referenced in our January 2017 blog post and are summarized as follows.

• Defendant JD Classic is a business that provides construction services throughout Brooklyn and Queens. JD Classic is owned and operated by Defendant Roth, who is responsible for hiring employees, determining employees’ pay rates, methods of pay, and work schedules.
• Defendants employed Plaintiff Ramirez-Marin to work as a construction laborer from May 2004 to February 15, 2016;
• Plaintiff’s duties consisted of laying cement, carrying materials and tools, and keeping work areas clean;
• For at least the six-year period pre-dating the commencement of this action, Defendants required Plaintiff to work, and Plaintiff did work a total of sixty hours per week without a scheduled or uninterrupted break;
• Defendants paid Ramirez-Marin a fixed weekly salary of $1,100.00 per week that was intended to cover only the first forty hours that he worked each week;
• Plaintiff’s straight-time rate was $27.50 per hour (an amount equal to his base rate of pay).

Straight-time rate is particularly important because when a non-exempt employee works over forty hours per week, the employer is required by law to pay the employee at 1.5x his/her straight-time rate of pay for each hour worked in excess of forty. The additional pay is called the overtime rate. In this case, Defendants paid Plaintiff $27.50 per hour for the first forty hours he worked each week and nothing additional for the twenty overtime hours that he worked each week. By failing to compensate Plaintiff Ramirez-Marin at any rate of pay, let alone at his overtime rate of pay, or $41.25 for the twenty hours he worked in excess of forty each week, Defendants violated rights guaranteed to Plaintiff by the overtime provisions of the FLSA, the NYLL, and the NYCCRR.

Additionally, the NYLL requires that employers furnish employees with wage statements containing specific categories of accurate information on each payday. However, on each occasion when they paid Plaintiff, Defendants failed to provide Plaintiff with proper wage statements that accurately listed his actual hours worked for that week.
Certification of Collective Action

In this case, pursuant to the request of the Plaintiff, the judge reviewed claims that Plaintiff brought forward alleging that there are additional workers in the same “class” (performing the same or similar duties) whose rights have been violated. After reviewing the facts of this case, on June 8, 2018, Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes granted “conditional certification” allowing the case to proceed as a collective action enabling any current and former non-managerial 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 October 6, 2010 – 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.

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Court Authorized Notice and Opt-In Form (English)
Aviso Autorizado del Tribunal y Formulario de Opción de Participación (SPANISH)
Zezwolenie Trybunału i formularz zgody (POLISH)