Wykagyl Country Club Fails to Pay Golf Caddies Proper Wages, Lawsuit Claims

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class and collective action alleges the Wykagyl Country Club in New York has failed to pay caddies proper minimum and overtime wages and later harassed the plaintiff for lodging his complaints.

The 22-page lawsuit alleges the New Rochelle, New York private golf club has “willfully” violated state and federal labor laws by refusing to pay its caddies minimum wage, time-and-a-half overtime pay, and spread-of-hours pay, which in New York stipulates that employees must be compensated an extra hour if they work more than 10 hours in a day.

According to the case, the plaintiff was “harassed and threatened” by club members and other golf caddies for filing the complaint, and the alleged retaliation and harassment has caused the man to experience “emotional distress, including stress and anxiety,” per the suit.

Want to stay in the loop on class actions that matter to you? Sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.

The Wykagyl Country Club employs roughly 60 caddies at any given time, the suit relays. The filing claims that the club pays these workers neither an hourly rate nor overtime pay (1.5 times the hourly rate) when they work over 40 hours a week, and that “[t]he only compensation that the Golf Caddies receive comes from the golfers.”

Per the complaint, golfers pay caddies $120 per golf bag they carry—a fee set by the club that the caddies have no ability to change—and tip at their own discretion. The case alleges that despite the fact that the bag fee and tips are the caddies’ “sole compensation,” the golf club does not take steps to ascertain whether the golfers have paid either.

New York Labor Law also requires employers to provide employees with wage statements as well as notice of their pay rate, both of which the golf club fails to do, the suit adds.

According to the filing, the plaintiff, a New York resident, works as a caddy at the Wykagyl Country Club for approximately 10 hours a day, up to seven days a week. The man submitted a complaint about his employer’s alleged labor law violations in October of this year, the lawsuit says, and in the following days encountered “retaliation and harassment” by club members and caddies, according to the case.

The harassment has caused the plaintiff “stress” and “anxiety,” the case charges, and may “dissuade a similar working [sic] for making similar complaints.”

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone who has worked as a golf caddy at Wykagyl Country Club at any time since December 8, 2016.

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.