Olsen Twins Company Hit with Intern Wage Lawsuit

Previous interns of a company owned by celebrities Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have requested that a Manhattan judge give preliminary approval of a $140,000 proposed settlement. This settlement is meant to resolve allegations of a proposed class action intern wage lawsuit that claims the company misclassified their employment category and withheld wages.

The potential settlement would require company Dualstar Entertainment Group LLC to pay no more than $140,000 to the proposed plaintiff Class of about 185 members. These Class Members would have worked in the state of New York from Aug. 7, 2009 to the date of the preliminary approval order.

The potential class action intern wage lawsuit settlement did not face an opposition from the fashion and entertainment company when it was recently filed.

“The parties devoted a significant amount of time attempting to settle this action. [T]o this end, plaintiffs’ counsel conducted interviews with plaintiff [Shahista] Lalani and putative class members and reviewed data and other information produced by defendant for the proposed class,” the potential class action intern wage lawsuit said.

The former interns moved for class certification of their intern wage lawsuit for settlement purposes, arguing the named plaintiffs’ allegations were similar enough to the claims of other members.

The proposed class action intern wage lawsuit states that Lalani and other Class Members were entitled to minimum wage benefits for all hours worked but were denied those wages because the company allegedly misclassified their employment category.

Overview of Minimum Wage Violations

According to federal labor laws, employees must be paid a minimum of $7.25 per hour and must be paid at one-an-a-half times the typical wage rate for overtime. Employees are eligible for overtime benefits if they work 40 hours a week, unless if exempt under Department of Labor (DOL) standards.

Interns are only exempt from minimum wage benefits under certain circumstances, but employers need to be careful of not using interns to replace paid employees to avoid the cost of paying employees.

According to the intern wage lawsuit, Dualstar violated New York labor laws by assigning duties to the interns that were typically given to paid employees including: running errands, making photocopies, and sewing different materials.

These interns reportedly worked approximately 50 hours a week without receiving any payment, leading to Lalani filing the intern wage lawsuit in August 2015. These interns were also reportedly ordered to input data for spreadsheets, make tech sheets, cut patterns, and take on cleaning duties.

The wage intern lawsuit alleged the Olsen twins company had been allegedly misclassifying interns as early as 2009 to avoid paying them. The proposed intern wage lawsuit settlement aims to resolve all wage and hour violations, and seeking compensation of all missed wages.

This potential class action Intern Wage Lawsuit is Lalani, et al. v. Dualstar Entertainment Group LLC, et al., Case No. 158205/2015, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York.

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