Lawsuit Claims Nashville Hotel Employees were Underpaid and Denied Overtime Pay

I don’t know why but there seems we have a disturbing amount of cases where Hotels refuse to pay overtime to employees. We filed a lawsuit against one hotel last month for FLSA violations and are preparing a new one now. Apparently, other Tennessee Overtime Lawyers are seeing same problems. If you or someone you work with has worked overtime hours but not received your overtime pay, then you should speak to a Tennessee employment overtime pay lawyer right away.

According to this case, the hotels, the Best Western Music Row on Division and the Comfort Inn Downtown on Demonbreun, paid housekeepers as little as $3.50 an hour and made them work up to 70 hours a week without breaks. Rajesh Aggarwal, the franchise owner of both hotels stated that, “I’m certain that’s untrue,” when asked about the claims. According to the lawsuit, many of the hotel housekeepers are Hispanic single women and were paid a flat rate between $650 and $676 every 15 days, and the workers were sometimes given just one day off per week. Also, working fourteen hours a day was common. The lawsuit alleges several violations of the Federal Labor Standards Act.
Greg Adkins, president of the Tennessee Hospitality Association, said lawsuits brought against hotels are sometimes filed by “disgruntled employees,” adding that just because allegations have been made does not mean there was any wrongdoing. He also stated that,”Our hoteliers strive to abide by all state and federal laws.”
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2011 it was discovered that there were widespread wage pay abuse among the hotel and motel industry in Tennessee. Federal officials discovered thirty-four hotels across the state, which were fined a total of $14,552 in civil penalties and required to pay out more than $170,000 in back wages for labor violations.
According to the Tennessee Department of Labor, there are nearly 20,000 employed in cleaning and maintenance jobs statewide. , Housekeepers in Tennessee total more than 8,000, and are paid around $9.86 an hour on average. The employees involved in the lawsuit were however, paid between $3.50 and seven dollars an hour. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
The lawsuit includes four employees but housekeepers who worked for either of the two hotels in the past three years can join the lawsuit. The lawsuit is seeking class-action status.
Aggarwal, according to the lawsuit, hired Hernandez last summer to work as a house cleaner at the Best Western on Music Row, working 11-hour shifts six days a week.
The suit states that Hernandez, like the other employees, was never required to record his workday hours. Instead, he was paid $50 a day regardless of how many hours he worked.

Cases just like this one happen to hard working employees all across the country and even right here to Tennessee employees. If you or someone you know has worked overtime hours but failed to receive your proper overtime pay, we encourage you to contact one of our compassionate and experienced Tennessee employment overtime pay attorneys as soon as possible. We care about our clients and will work with you to see to it that you get the compensation that you are entitled to.