(Failure to Pay Overtime Wages – FLSA, Brought by Plaintiff on Behalf of  Herself and the FLSA Collective Plaintiffs)   (Failure to Pay Overtime Wages – NYLL, Brought by Plaintiff on Behalf of  Herself and the Class Members)   (Wage Statement Violations – NYLL §195, Brought by Plaintiff on Behalf of Herself  and the Class Members)   14.  Defendant employed Plaintiff as a full-time Home Health Aide.  Plaintiff’s  duties include household chores, hygiene assistance, personal healthcare and running  errands for the persons to whom Defendant assigned her (“consumer”).   15.   From October 18, 2016 until on or around February 21, 2017 (“Plaintiff’s  relevant time period”), Defendant scheduled Plaintiff to work 7 consecutive 24 hour  shifts.  4   16.  Accounting for sleep and meal time, throughout Plaintiff’s relevant time  period, Plaintiff worked ninety-one (91) hours per work week.   17.  Defendant paid Plaintiff a daily rate of pay of one hundred and sixty-five  dollars ($165) for thirteen (13) hours per work per day.   18.  Defendant did not properly compensate Plaintiff, the FLSA Collective  Plaintiffs, and the Class Members at the lawful overtime rates of one and one-half times  their regular hourly rates of pay as required by law for all hours worked in excess of forty  (40) hours per week.   19.  Plaintiff, the FLSA Collective Plaintiffs, and the Class Members regularly  worked over 40 hours per workweek. Despite Plaintiff, the FLSA Collective Plaintiffs,  and the Class Members regularly working in excess of 40 hours per week, Defendant  failed to pay them overtime premiums as required by law.   20.  Defendant violated NYLL § 195(3) by failing to furnish Plaintiff and the  Class Members with a statement with every payment of wages, listing, among other  things, hours worked, rates paid, gross wages, deductions and net wages, and an  explanation of how such wages were computed.    21.  Defendant knew of, and/or showed reckless disregard for, the practices by  which Plaintiff and other similarly situated employees of Defendant were not paid  overtime premiums for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a week.  Defendant  knew that the nonpayment of overtime premiums would economically injure Plaintiff, the  FLSA Collective Plaintiffs, and the Class Members, and that they violated the FLSA and  the NYLL.   22.  Defendant committed the foregoing acts knowingly, intentionally and  5  willfully against the Plaintiff, the FLSA Collective Plaintiffs, and the Class Members.   23.  Plaintiff brings the First Claim for Relief as a collective action pursuant to  the FLSA, 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), on behalf of all persons employed by Defendant as home  health aides and scheduled to work four (4) or more 24 hour shifts from January 1, 2015.  All said persons, including Plaintiff, are referred to herein as the “FLSA Collective  Plaintiffs”.    24.  At all relevant times, Plaintiff and the other FLSA Collective Plaintiffs are  and have been similarly situated, have had substantially similar job requirements, job  duties and pay provisions, and are and have been subject to Defendant’s decision, policy,  plan, practice, procedure, routine and rules to willfully fail and refuse to pay them the  legally required overtime premium for all hours worked in excess of forty (40) hours per  workweek.  The claims of the Plaintiff herein are essentially the same as those of the  other FLSA Collective Plaintiffs.   25.  Other home health aides scheduled to work four (4) or more 24 hour  shifts, currently or formerly employed by Defendant should have the opportunity to have  their claims for violations of the FLSA heard.  Certifying this action as a collective action  under the FLSA will provide other construction workers to receive notice of the action  and allow them to opt in to this action if they so choose.   26.  The First Claim for Relief is properly brought under and maintained as an  opt-in collective action pursuant to §216(b) of the FLSA, 29 U.S.C. 216(b).  The FLSA  Collective Plaintiffs are readily ascertainable.  For purpose of notice and other purposes  related to this action, their names and addresses are readily available from Defendant.   6  Notice can be provided to the FLSA Collective Plaintiffs via first class mail to the last  addresses known to Defendant.  27.  Plaintiff brings the Second and Third Claims for Relief pursuant to the  Fed. R. Civ. P. (“FRCP”) Rule 23, unpaid overtime, wage statements violations and other  damages on behalf of all individuals employed in the State of New York by Defendant as  home health aides and scheduled to work four (4) or more 24 hour shifts from January 1,  2015 (the “Class Period”). All said persons, including Plaintiff, are referred to herein as  the “Class Members” and/or the “Class”.    28.  The number, names and addresses of the Class Members are readily  ascertainable from the records of the Defendant. The dates of employment and the rates  of pay for each Class Member, the hours assigned and worked, and the wages paid to  them, are also determinable from Defendant’s records.  Notice can be provided by means  permissible under FRCP Rule 23.   29.  The proposed Class is so numerous that joinder of all Class Members is  impracticable, and the disposition of their claims as a Class will benefit the parties and  the Court. While the precise number of such persons is unknown to the Plaintiff and is  presently within the sole control of Defendant, Plaintiff believes that through discovery  he will obtain evidence to establish that there are at least 40 members of the Class.   30.  Plaintiff’s claims are typical of those claims of the Class Members, and  the relief sought is typical of the relief which would be sought by each Class Member in  separate actions. All the Class Members were subject to the same corporate practices of  Defendant, in that they were not compensated for overtime hours worked as required by  7  12 NYCRR § 142-2.2, and that Defendant failed to provide them with proper notices and  wage statements as required by NYLL §195. Defendant’ corporate-wide policies and  practices affected all Class Members similarly, and Defendant benefited from the same  type of unfair and/or wrongful acts as to each Class Member.    31.  As fellow employees of Defendant, which failed to adequately compensate  Plaintiff and the members of the Class as required by law, Plaintiff and the other Class  Members sustained similar losses, injuries and damages arising from the same unlawful  policies, practices and procedures.   32.  Plaintiff is able to fairly and adequately protect the interests of the Class  and has no interests antagonistic to the Class.  Plaintiff has retained Gennadiy  Naydenskiy, Esq., a competent and experienced employment litigator.   33.  A class action is superior to other available methods for the fair and  efficient adjudication of the controversy – particularly in the context of wage and hour  litigation where individual class members lack the financial resources to vigorously  prosecute a lawsuit against corporate defendant.  Class action treatment will permit a  large number of similarly situated persons to prosecute their common claims in a single  forum simultaneously, efficiently, and without the unnecessary duplication of efforts and  expense that numerous individual actions engender.  Because the losses, injuries and  damages suffered by each of the individual Class Members are relatively small in the  sense pertinent to a class action analysis, the expenses and burden of individual litigation  would make it extremely difficult or impossible for the individual Class Members to  redress the wrongs done to them.  On the other hand, important public interests will be  served by addressing the matter as a class action.  The adjudication of individual  8  litigation claims would result in a great expenditure of Court and public resources;  however, treating the claims as a class action would result in a significant saving of these  costs.  The prosecution of separate actions by individual members of the Class would  create a risk of inconsistent and/or varying adjudications with respect to the individual  members of the Class, establishing incompatible standards of conduct for Defendant and  resulting in the impairment of Class Members’ rights and the disposition of their interests  through actions to which they were not parties.  The issues in this action can be decided  by means of common, class-wide proof.  In addition, if appropriate, the Court can, and is  empowered to, fashion methods to efficiently manage this action as a class action.   34.  Upon information and belief, employees of Defendant in these types of  actions are often afraid to individually assert their rights out of fear of direct or indirect  retaliation and former employees are fearful of bringing individual claims because the  fear that doing so could harm their employment, future employment, and future efforts to  secure employment.  A class action provides Class Members who are not named in the  Complaint a degree of anonymity which allows for the vindication of their rights while  eliminating or reducing these risks.    35.  The questions of law and fact common to the Class predominate over any  questions affecting only individual Class Members, including: (a) whether Defendant  required Class Members to work uncompensated overtime as required by 12 NYCRR §  142-2.2, and (b) whether Defendant provided Class Members with sufficiently detailed  wage statements as required by NYLL § 195(3).   9   36.  Absent a class action, many of the Class Members likely will not obtain  redress of their injuries and Defendant will retain the proceeds of their violations of the  37.  Plaintiff, on behalf of herself and the FLSA Collective Plaintiffs, realleges  and incorporates by reference all previous paragraphs as if they were set forth again  herein.   38.  Throughout the statute of limitations period covered by these claims,  Plaintiff and the FLSA Collective Plaintiffs regularly worked in excess of forty (40)  hours per workweek.   39.  At all relevant times, Defendant willfully, regularly, repeatedly and  knowingly failed to pay Plaintiff and the FLSA Collective Plaintiffs the required  overtime rates for all hours worked in excess of forty (40) hours per workweek.   40.  Plaintiff, on behalf of herself and the FLSA Collective Plaintiffs, seeks  damages in the amount of their respective unpaid overtime compensation, liquidated  (double) damages as provided by the FLSA for overtime violations, attorneys’ fees and  costs, and such other legal and equitable relief as this Court deems just and proper.  41.  Plaintiff, on behalf of herself and the Class Members, realleges and  incorporates by reference all previous paragraphs as if they were set forth again herein.  10   42.  It is unlawful under New York law for an employer to suffer or permit a  non-exempt employee to work without paying overtime premiums for all hours worked in  excess of forty (40) hours in any workweek.   43.  Throughout the Class Period, Defendant willfully, regularly, repeatedly  and knowingly failed to pay Plaintiff and the Class Members at the required overtime  rates for all hours worked in excess of forty (40) hours per workweek.   44.  As a direct and proximate result of Defendant’ unlawful conduct, as set  forth herein, Plaintiff and the Class Members have sustained damages, including loss of  earnings, in an amount to be established at trial.   45.  Plaintiff, on behalf of herself and the Class Members, seek damages in the  amount of their respective unpaid wages, overtime compensation, liquidated damages,  prejudgment interest, attorneys’ fees and costs, pursuant to NYLL, and such other legal  and equitable relief as this Court deems just and proper.  46.  Plaintiff, on behalf of herself and the Class Members, realleges and  incorporates by reference all previous paragraphs as if they were set forth again herein.   47.  Defendant failed to supply Plaintiff and each Class Member with an  accurate statement of wages as required by NYLL § 195, containing the dates of work  covered by that payment of wages; name of employee; name of employer; address and  phone number of employer; rate or rates of pay and basis thereof, whether paid by the  hour, shift, day, week, salary, piece, commission, or other; gross wages; hourly rate or  rates of pay and overtime rate or rates of pay if applicable; the number of hours worked,  11  including overtime hours worked if applicable; deductions; allowances, if any, claimed as  part of the minimum wage; and net wages.   48.  Due to Defendant’s violations of the NYLL, Plaintiff and the Class  Members are entitled to recover damages and/or statutory penalties from Defendant, as  provided for by NYLL § 198, as well as reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs. 