An employment lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of New York against Toshiba Global Commerce Services Solutions Inc. (TGCS) claims that a man who served as “Executive Director of Separation” received far less compensation than he was promised.
The filing asserts that the plaintiff, a New York resident, was hired in 2013 with a base salary of $175,000 per year and was pledged additional compensation through the company’s annual incentive plan. In his role, the plaintiff was reportedly tasked with “separating complex computer software systems from a system used when TGCS and IBM operated as a joint venture to new systems for TGCS where he led the implementation projects.”
According to the complaint, when the plaintiff was on-boarded he was told he would be treated as an independent contractor for the first several weeks of his employment. The plaintiff disavows this contention, asserting that he was an employee by virtue of his ties to the company including his permanent office at TCGS headquarters in North Carolina, that he supervised other TCGS employees, and that he had no other clients.
Under the terms of the annual compensation policy, the plaintiff says he was due a minimum of 30% of his base salary up to a maximum of 200%, payable after the close of the company’s fiscal year. However, until he was laid off for non-cause reasons with other employees in 2017, the plaintiff says he was under-compensated, receiving between zero and $40,000 in bonuses during his tenure.
The filing also claims TCGS shorted the plaintiff long term incentive pay as well as severance pay. The lawsuit states claims for violations of North Carolina and alternatively, New York labor law as well as breach of contract, seeking a total of more than $600,000 in unawarded compensation.
The plaintiff is represented by Fryer & Ross LLP.
