A group of car washers is accusing its Jamaica employer of paying less than the minimum wage and cheating workers out of overtime.
The workers, who filed a lawsuit against A.J.A. Car Wash at 107-05 Merrick Blvd. in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday, said they are seeking back wages which they estimate add up to $400,000.
“I generally worked six days a week for over 70 hours a week but the boss doesn’t pay us any overtime,” said Miguel Yax, 34, who has worked at A.J.A. Car Wash for more than 15 years.
According to the lawsuit, Yax, who in 2009 was making $4.75 an hour, currently gets $7 an hour.
Other workers, the lawsuit claims, are paid $6 an hour.
The lawsuit also says that the car wash sends workers home without pay on rainy days and does not divide tips equally among the employees.
4 comments:
i feel bad but, this is what happens when you work off the books and do not pay income taxes.
These are illegals. What recourse do they have?
Predatory employers can use them as slaves if they desire.
Otherwise a treat of reporting them to ICE keeps them quiet.
The same car wash that back in 12/2013 that was spilling toxic chemicals out into Merrick Blvd during our walking tour with Senator Tony Avella. Here are the pics of that:https://cleanupjamaicaqueens.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/garbage-11-1-13-026.jpg
Several diner-coffee shops I know of are being sued by present and former worker making the same claim of no overtime.
One owner has tried to pressure his workers into signing a statement that they did get overtime pay -when they did not. One worker recorded the conversation. The owner has offered to settle for $15,000 to cover eight or nine workers, they refused. This will be interesting.
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