Nearly 400 highway repair workers employed by the Department of Transportation are suing the city, alleging they aren’t being paid for overtime.
The lawsuit filed last Monday in the Southern District Court for New York claims that the city’s timekeeping system, CityTime, only pays employees for their regular scheduled hours, not the times that they punch in and out of work. The lawsuit argues that the city’s practices violate the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which states that employees can recover unpaid overtime wages for twice what they’re owed.
DOT spokesperson Scott Gastel told Gothamist that the city is reviewing the case.
Highway repair crew leader Jonathan Cummings is among the lawsuit’s 383 plaintiffs.
A Nassau County resident, Cummings serves as a crew leader for the Department of Transportation's concrete team, where he’s tasked with repairing sidewalk corners and keeping them accessible for visually impaired pedestrians or those using wheelchairs. His workday runs from 5 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. five days a week, and it’s not uncommon for highway repair crews to work through breaks.
“A lot of times we work straight through lunch,” Cummings said. “That was part of the reason I signed up for [the lawsuit].”
Cummings is a shop steward for the union Local 983, which represents many of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs.
Shanee Bujarski, another plaintiff on the lawsuit, wasn’t thrilled about not getting paid for the additional work.
“I damn sure wasn’t too happy to hear that I wasn’t getting paid overtime when I was supposed to,” he said.
According to Diana Nobile, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, it’s unclear how much the city could owe the DOT workers in overtime. That’s because the payroll records are held exclusively by the city, the lawsuit alleges.
Nobile said the city’s actions are “a very clear violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
The plaintiffs “come in before their paid time, gather their equipment, do vehicle inspections, find out about their crew for the day… and they’re not paid for that time,” Nobile said. “Courts, time and time again, have said that’s work. It’s work that needs to be paid.”
Among city agencies, this lawsuit isn’t the first of its kind.
The plaintiffs in the case were represented by McGillivary Steele Elkin and Spivak Lipton. The two firms have filed several similar lawsuits against the city previously.
In February, almost 380 Human Resources Administration employees sued the city for unpaid overtime, arguing that CityTime wasn’t compensating them for time punched in. And in April 2019, the MTA paid over a half million dollars to 412 employees in an unpaid overtime settlement.
Local 983 President Joseph Puleo said CityTime is “flawed.”
“Time and time again, we find out that they’re shortchanging everybody,” he said.
Multiple plaintiffs hope the city will pay them for hours that they allege remain uncompensated.
“It’s not fair that some guys are working through lunch, some days it’s hot,” said Henry Casanova, another DOT employee.
“That’s a slap in the face,” he said.
“We put our heart, sweat and tears into working hard for the city and making the city look good,” added highway repair employee Carl Carrasquillo. “So we should be getting paid correctly.”
