Antigua Pharmacy, LLC was sued by former employee Nick Gioules Tuesday over claims they failed to provide him with adequate compensation and retaliated against his efforts to obtain full compensation by terminating him. The class & collective action complaint, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York Labor Law (NYLL).
The plaintiff is seeking class certification and a trial by jury. He is bringing the action against Antigua on behalf of all non-exempt employees who experienced similar circumstances in their compensation.
Gioules said he was hired by Antigua in September 2019, where he worked as a supervising pharmacist at a wage of $55 per hour. According to overtime laws, he said overtime rate would be $82.50 per hour if he were to work in excess of 40 hours for a single week. The plaintiff explained that he would regularly work more than 45 hours and was never properly compensated. Despite the overtime rule, the defendant “only paid Plaintiff $55.00 for every hour worked regardless of the fact that he worked more than forty (40) hours per week for virtually every workweek he worked for Defendants.”
In addition to the lack of overtime pay, Gioules said he was not properly compensated for his spread-of-hours hours. Under labor laws, he claimed, a day where an employee’s spread-of-hours exceeds 10 hours calls for unique compensation. However, Antigua “did not maintain records of the hours Plaintiff worked in direct violation of the law.” Gioules argued that he was not exempt under any laws that require employers to pay correct compensation, and therefore is deserving of the correct and lawful pay.
The complaint contended that the defendants had “knowledge that they have been violating federal and state laws and Plaintiff has thus been economically injured.” They failed to pay proper overtime and spread-of-hours compensation, and also failed to provide wage notices and proper paystubs. In order to conceal their misconduct, the defendants “evaded the recordkeeping requirements of the FLSA and NYLL and supporting regulations.” This enabled them to “facilitate their exploitation” of Gioules’ labor more easily since the plaintiff lacked any accurate hour, payment, or wage records.
The plaintiff also explained that Antigua required him to pay for supplies they needed, totaling a sum of $10,541.89. They reimbursed Gioules $5,527.00 of the total sum, yet when he attempted to deposit the check, it bounced, and he was forced to pay a bank fee for the bounced check. When he complained about the check and demanded payment, he was terminated in May 2020.
The plaintiff alleged seven violations of state and federal labor law. He is represented by Shalom Law.
