Second Suit Filed Against Coast to Coast Auto Glass for Overtime Allegations
A former installer for Coast to Coast Auto Glass has filed a suit against the company in New York alleging that he regularly worked more than 40 hours per week for the company and was refused overtime pay due him in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), according to court documents. The suit, the second in just a month filed against the company for a similar complaint, was filed on November 1 by former Coast to Coast installer and technician Raymond Nelson Mejia.

"Despite the fact that Plaintiff regularly worked more than 40 hours per week in a nonexempt position, Defendant refused to pay him time and a half for overtime, often paying him on a "piece rate" basis with no additional premiums for overtime work performed," reads the complaint.

Mejia, who claims to have worked for the company from September 30, 2009, to March 2010, says he was paid $35 per install up to January 27, 2010, and $40 after that, according to the suit.

"Mejia generally worked approximately 50 hours per week," continues Penn Dodson of Goldbert & Dohan LLP in New York in the complaint. "Plaintiff Mejia was not paid at a rate of one and one half times his normal hourly rate for all hours over 40 worked in a workweek."

In addition, Mejia alleges that he often worked more than 10 hours in a day, and on those days, Coast to Coast did not pay him "an additional one-hour's pay at the applicable minimum wage rate."

Along with the overtime claims, Mejia also charges Coast to Coast with "record-keeping failures," stating that the company "failed to make, keep and preserve accurate records regarding the wages, hours and other conditions of [his] employment."

Mejia also claims the company violates the New York Minimum Wage Act (NYLL) by "[failing] to provide [him] at least thirty minutes for the noon day meal" on days in which he worked a shift of more than six hours over the 11 a.m.-2 p.m. meal timeframe. In addition, he alleges that on days when he worked a shift that started before 11 a.m. and continued past 7 p.m., he should have been provided "an additional meal period of at least 20 minutes between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., in contravention of NYLL."

Mejia is seeking unpaid wages and overtime wages, liquidated damages, court costs, and interest.

Mejia's attorney, Penn Dodson, advised glasssBYTEs.com™/AGRR magazine today that she does not know whether her client and Ulysses Mejia, a former Coast to Coast sales representative who filed a similar suit in Florida in October, are related. A representative in the office of Robert Norell, who is representing Ulysses Mejia in the Florida case, advised she would not be able to release such information.

Coast to Coast spokesperson Jigna Patel declined to comment on either case.

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