New York Paving Owes Unpaid Wages for Substantial Off-The-Clock Work, Lawsuit Claims

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New York Paving Inc. is the defendant in a proposed class and collective action filed by a construction worker formerly employed by the company who claims he and other pavers are owed unpaid overtime wages.

Alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York Labor Law (NYLL), the lawsuit claims the plaintiff worked for the defendant from January through March 2017. The plaintiff alleges the defendant wields a “uniform and systematic” policy of failing to pay pavers for work done both before the scheduled start of their first daily job and after the end of the last daily job.

More specifically, the complaint states the defendant requires pavers to be at New York Paving’s main yard in Long Island City early each day to receive instructions concerning the day’s assignments. During this time, the case goes on, pavers also must be counted by management, collect tools and materials, and prepare the defendant’s trucks, all of which “typically takes more than 30 to 45 minutes.” The plaintiff claims this daily work time goes uncompensated.

Once this pre-shift yard work is completed, pavers then travel to the day’s first job site, the suit says. This travel time “typically takes more than 15 minutes and can take as long as 1.5 hours or more depending on traffic,” the suit claims, all of which supposedly goes uncompensated.

“Despite performing several tasks integral and necessary to their principal work for [the defendant] starting when they arrive at the Company’s central yard, [the defendant] only begins paying its pavers when work at the first paving site of the day is scheduled to begin,” the suit claims.

Once the final paving job of the day is complete, pavers typically perform another 30 to 45 minutes of work, such as reloading company trucks, driving back to the defendant’s yard and unloading trucks, once again without any wages, the case states. The suit says pavers are not paid by the defendant for time spent in traffic returning to the company’s yard, nor for refueling trucks.