On Thursday, Danilo Mera filed a class action complaint in the Southern District of New York against four LLCs and two individuals, alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), New York Labor Laws and New York Human Rights Laws.
According to the complaint, KYMA Hudson LLC, KYM NYC LLC, Old Northern Boulevard Restaurant LLC and 217 W85 LLC (corporate defendants) are four Greek taverna-inspired restaurants in New York City that are owned and operated by Merkourios Angeliades and Steve Tenedios (individual defendants). Additionally, the complaint states that the individual defendants operate the four restaurants as a single, integrated enterprise.
The complaint states that Danilo Mera is a resident of Essex County, New Jersey and a former employee of the defendants. The plaintiff alleges that the defendants had a common practice of having employees perform work at any of the four corporate defendant’s locations on an as-needed basis.
The complaint alleges that the defendants routinely violated wage and hour requirements under the FLSA and NYLL. Specifically, the complaint states that the plaintiffs were not properly paid for their overtime hours worked, were not provided or compensated for meals breaks, deprived of gratuities through an invalid “tip pool” and paid below minimum wage at an invalid “tip credit” minimum wage due to the “tip pool.” Further, the complaint states that the defendants failed to provide proper wage statements and notices in compliance with NYLL.
Additionally, the complaint alleges that the defendants created a hostile work environment due to the defendants’ discriminatory practices in violation of New York Human Rights Laws. The plaintiff alleges that the defendants generally do not hire members of the LGBTQ community due to their sexual orientation. Mera states that he is a homosexual male, and while working for the defendants, he suffered a barrage of discriminatory slurs and abuse because of his sexual orientation that led to his constructive termination.
Accordingly, the plaintiff brought the present class action lawsuit alleging violations of the FLSA, NYLL, New York State’s Human Rights Law and New York City’s Human Rights Law and seeks class certification, declaratory and injunctive relief, an award of unpaid wages, back pay compensatory and punitive damages, statutory penalties, pre- and post-judgment interest, attorney’s fees and costs. The plaintiffs are represented by the Lee Litigation Group, PLLC.
