Cruz v. Network Infrastructure Inc. d/b/a Network Infrastructure, and Patrick Clarke, individually, and Craig Lusardi individually; Index No.:25-cv-832

New Action filed in the United States District Court Southern District of New York

On January 28, 2025, Plaintiff Cruz, by and through his attorneys, Borrelli & Associates, P.L.L.C., as and for his Complaint against Network Infrastructure Inc. d/b/a Network Infrastructure (“Network Infrastructure”), and Patrick Clarke, individually, and Craig Lusardi, individually (collectively with Network Infrastructure, where appropriate, as “Defendants”), alleges upon knowledge as to himself and his own actions, and upon information and belief as to all other matter, as follows:

Plaintiff worked for Defendants – – a utility asset management and contracting company based in Nassau County that services the New York City and Westchester areas, its Branch Manager, and one of its Superintendents, both of whom serve as its day-to-day overseers – – as a non-managerial laborer from in or around mid-July 2024 through the present.  As described below, throughout his employment, except from November 3 through January 5, 2025, and currently, Defendants have willfully failed to pay Plaintiff the overtime wages lawfully due to him under the Fair Standards Labor Act (“FLSA”) and the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) and the New York Code of Rules and Regulations (“NYCRR”).

Specifically, Defendants have required Plaintiff to work, and Plaintiff does in fact work, in excess of forty hours each week, or virtually each week.  Yet in exchange for his work, Defendants have failed to compensate Plaintiff, who is an hourly employee, at any rate of pay for any hours that Plaintiff works prior to his scheduled shifts that exceeded forty in a workweek, and thus not at the statutorily-required overtime rate of pay for those hours.  More specifically, in addition to his regularly-scheduled forty-hour per week shifts, Defendants require Plaintiff to report to their Bronx warehouse located at 1095 Close Avenue, Bronx, New York, 10472 (“the Yard”), before the beginning of each scheduled shift to prepare their tools and trucks for the work to be performed at Defendants’ worksites before travelling to his assigned worksite for the day.  Defendants have not, and do not, pay Plaintiff at any rate of his pay for this pre-shift work.  Further, during the week of December 16 through December 22, 2024, Defendants failed to pay Plaintiff at least at the minimum wage rate that the FLSA, the NYLL, and the NYCRR require per hour of work and failed to compensate Plaintiff the wages lawfully due to him under the NYCRR for “call-in” pay.  More specifically, during this time period, Defendants continued to require Plaintiff to report to the Yard each morning before the beginning of his scheduled shift to perform an hour of work, but sent Plaintiff home afterward and failed to compensate Plaintiff at any rate of pate for his time spent working on those days, much less at the applicable minimum wage rate, nor for the required four hours of pay at the applicable minimum wage rate as the NYCRR requires. Moreover, Defendants have failed, and continue to fail, to pay Plaintiff who is and is a manual worker, all of his earned wages on a timely basis in violation of Section 191(1)(a) of the NYLL and to furnish Plaintiff with an accurate wage statement on each payday or with an accurate wage notice at his time of hire. Defendants have paid and treated all of their non-managerial laborers in the same manner.

If any individual is or has previously been an employee of the Defendants named in the lawsuit and/or has information that may be relevant to this case, please contact Borrelli & Associates, P.L.L.C. as soon as possible through one of our websites, www.employmentlawyernewyork.com or www.516abogado.com, or any of our phone numbers: (516) 248–5550, (516) ABOGADO, or (212) 679–5000.