School Lunch Aide Claims NYC Department of Education Failed to Timely Pay Workers During COVID-19 Crisis

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A high school lunch aide alleges he and other New York City Department of Education (DOE) employees were not timely paid on their scheduled paydays for every hour worked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lawsuit, filed New York’s Southern District Court, claims the city’s Department of Education violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by failing to implement adequate measures during the pandemic to ensure employees were paid on or near their regularly scheduled paydays for all the work performed in the week prior to each payday. 

“As part of its regular business practice, Defendant intentionally, willfully, and repeatedly engaged in a pattern, practice, and/or policy of violating the FLSA with respect to Named Plaintiff and members of the Putative Collective,” the complaint scathes, alleging the plaintiff has still not received two paychecks for work performed in April 2020.

The 66-year-old plaintiff, who has been employed with the DOE since 2007, currently works 20 hours a week and is normally scheduled to receive a paycheck every two weeks, per the case.

According to the suit, the plaintiff did not receive his April 2 paycheck, which is normally sent by mail, and was advised by the DOE that he and other workers would be required to pick up their paychecks at different locations throughout the city despite “a strictly enforced government lockdown during the height of the pandemic.”

Although he was well aware of the heightened risks of traveling by subway during the COVID-19 crisis, the plaintiff, who says he lives on a limited income, felt he had no other alternative than to attempt to retrieve his wages, the suit claims.

After the plaintiff traveled to West 28^th Street to the location specified by the DOE, a posted sign then directed him to pick up his paycheck from Tweed Courthouse the next day between the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M., the lawsuit states.

After picking up his paycheck the next day, the plaintiff was told that he needed to update his mailing address in order to be paid in the future, the suit says. With the assistance of a friend, the plaintiff emailed his address to the DOE as requested, according to the case.

Despite following the defendant’s directions, the plaintiff did not receive two scheduled wage payments on April 16 and 30, and has yet to receive them, the suit relays.

The plaintiff says he contacted two union officials, who in turn contacted the DOE on “a number of occasions” about the man’s missing wage payments, which he has still not received.

According to the suit, the defendant has failed to take “any remedial measure to cure this problem,” suggesting it is the DOE’s “willful policy and practice” to violate the FLSA by failing to timely pay its workers.

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