New Class and Collective Action filed in the Eastern District of New York

Campos v. Guru Teg Holding Inc., d/b/a Maharaja Farmers Market, and Akshar Holdings Inc., d/b/a Maharaja Farmers Market, and Krishna Holding Inc., d/b/a/ Maharaja Farmers Market, and Amandeep Singh a/k/a “Tony” Singh, individually, and Sunil Patel, individually

Civil Case No.: 18-cv-06346

On November 11, 2018, Plaintiff Mr. Campos, on behalf of himself, individually, and on behalf of all others similarly-situated, filed a class and collective action lawsuit in the United States District Court Eastern District of New York against GURU TEG HOLDING INC., d/b/a MAHARAJA FARMERS MARKET (“Guru”), AKSHAR HOLDINGS INC., d/b/a MAHARAJA FARMERS MARKET (“Akshar”), KRISHNA HOLDING INC., d/b/a/ MAHARAJA FARMERS MARKET (“Krishna”), and AMANDEEP SINGH a/k/a “TONY” SINGH (“Singh”), individually, and SUNIL PATEL (“Patel”), individually, (collectively, where appropriate, as “Defendants”), alleging upon knowledge as to himself and his own actions and upon information and belief as follows:

Mr. Campos worked for Defendants – – three corporations that operate as a single enterprise to run a chain of Long Island and New York City grocery stores and their joint owners and day-to-day overseers – – in the meat department of Defendants’ Hicksville, New York location, from approximately September 2015 until July 23, 2018. Plaintiff’s duties included, assisting customers at the meat counter, cutting, preparing, packaging, and pricing meat for sale, as well as cutting and preparing meat for use in the Hicksville location’s in-store prepared foods section.  Defendants Singh and Patel jointly own, operate, and manage all of the grocery store locations of the entity Defendants, are both ultimately responsible for all matters with respect to determining employees’ rates and methods of pay and hours worked, determining employees’ work locations, distributing work duties, and exercising the power to hire and fire and approve all personnel decisions with respect to Defendants’ employees, including Plaintiff.  Furthermore, the entity Defendants have an interrelation of operations as they: share employees with one another; concurrently control labor relations between employees and management; are commonly managed by the same personnel, namely Defendants Singh and Patel; and are commonly owned and controlled financially. Throughout his employment, regardless of how many hours he worked in a week, Defendants compensated Plaintiff at a flat weekly rate of $600.00, which was intended to and operated by law to cover only the first forty hours that Plaintiff worked each week. On each occasion when they paid Plaintiff, Defendants failed to actually provide Plaintiff with any wage statement, let alone one that accurately listed his straight and overtime rates of pay for all hours worked for that week, computed at the proper rates of pay for every hour worked.  Rather, as a prerequisite to receive his pay each week, Defendants required that Plaintiff sign a wage statement that purported to accurately list the criteria specified in the Fair Labor Standards Act (“NYLL”), including Plaintiff’s total work hours, wages calculated at the regular and overtime rates of pay, and spread of hours wages for that week.  But after Plaintiff did so, Defendants would confiscate the document and then pay Plaintiff his flat weekly salary of $600.00, which was substantially less than the amount included on the wage statements that Defendants forced Plaintiff to sign and then kept.  This practice occurred during each week of Plaintiff’s employment. Defendants willfully failed to pay Plaintiff the wages lawfully due to him under the NYLL and the New York Labor Law.

Defendant treated Plaintiff, FLSA Plaintiffs, and Rule 23 Plaintiffs in the same manner described herein. Accordingly, Plaintiff brings this lawsuit against Defendants pursuant to the collective action provisions of the FLSA, on behalf of herself and on behalf of all others similarly-situated who suffered damages because of Defendants’ willful violations of the law.

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.