Class Actions: Film Studios Underpay Parking Production Assistants

On Tuesday, a group of film studios including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment, and others were hit with wage and hour class action lawsuits that accuse the companies of underpaying workers.

The plaintiffs are a group of parking production assistants who are hired by film production companies to secure sets, lots and streets throughout New York City. According to the class action lawsuit, they are also responsible for safeguarding production equipment while on set.

The unpaid overtime class action lawsuit says that the plaintiffs have worked as parking production assistants for a variety of popular movies that were filmed in New York, including “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “The Avengers,” “Trainwreck,” “The Bourne Legacy,” and “Jersey Boys.”

According to the unpaid overtime class action lawsuits, U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law requires companies’ to pay minimum wages and overtime to parking production assistants. “Defendants violate these laws by engaging in a systematic scheme of altering Plaintiffs’ paychecks in order to deprive them of their statutorily required overtime pay,” the wage and hour class action lawsuit alleges.

“Plaintiffs, along with similarly situated current and former employees of Defendants, are non-exempt employees who are paid a shift rate of pay and who do not receive minimum wage or proper overtime compensation for hours worked beyond forty (40) per workweek,” the parking production assistants’ class action lawsuits state.

The plaintiffs allege that parking production assistants are not allowed to leave the production sites for meals and are not provided with compensation for meals, even though other employees are provided dinner. Further, they claim that they are only given limited access to restrooms on the production sites. “Due to limitations on their ability to leave their assigned locations, many of the Plaintiffs are forced to urinate and defecate into bottles and buckets in their vehicles,” the class action lawsuit alleges.

According to the unpaid overtime class action lawsuits, parking production assistants are paid a flat shift-rate of pay for each 12-hour shift. The most common shift rate was reportedly $150 per 12-hour shift.

“Plaintiffs’ paychecks did not reflect their actual rates of pay,” the parking production assistants’ class action lawsuit states. “Instead, when working a twelve (12) hour shift, their paychecks would indicate that they worked eight (8) hours at one fictional rate and an additional four (4) hours at another fictional rate.”

The plaintiffs assert that they, along with similarly situated individuals employed by the defendants, are entitled to recover their unpaid and incorrectly paid wages, unpaid overtime, liquidated damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, and other relief deemed appropriate by the court.

These wage and hour class action lawsuits were filed in New York federal court just days before the Academy Awards celebration, which will be held in Hollywood, Calif. on Sunday, Feb. 28. An attorney representing the plaintiffs indicated that the timing was intentional, and was part of an effort to draw attention to issues faced by parking production assistants in the industry.

The plaintiffs are represented by James Vagnini, Robert J. Valli Jr. and Matthew Berman of Valli Kane & Vagnini LLP.

The Film Studios Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuits are Morgan, et al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-01402; Morel, et al. v. Lions Gate Entertainment Inc., et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-01407; Forrest, et al. v. Ratpac-Dune Entertainment LLC, et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-01408; William v. NBCUniversal Media LLC, et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-01409; and Morgan, et al. v. Warner Bros. Pictures, a division of WB Studio Enterprises Inc., et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-01411, all in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.