GAS STATION WORKERS FILE WAGE THEFT CASE AGAINST GAS STATION EMPIRE
Nineteen workers cite failure to pay minimum wage in lawsuit against owner and managers.
New York, NY (April 28, 2016) — Nineteen gas station cashiers and attendants have filed a wage theft action against Steven Keshtgar, the owner of multiple gas stations, and two of the managers who ran the gas stations, Saverio Settanni and Sudheer Kumar. In Baniya v. Keshtgar, the workers are suing over the defendants’ routine failure to pay the minimum wage or overtime, and because they did not get paid at all for some periods of time.
As the complaint details, the 19 workers suing Keshtgar typically worked 12-hour shifts seven days a week, but did not get paid for all of the time they worked. Many were routinely paid less than the minimum wage even when they were paid. Many were never paid an overtime rate for any of their extra hours. The workers frequently had to wait weeks or months to get any of the pay they were owed. In the final months of their jobs, none of them were paid at all.
The complaint also details that the defendants deducted money out of the workers’ pay, claiming that items were lost or stolen. In addition, the defendants forced some of the workers to live in buildings owned by one of the managers and then deducted money out of the little pay they got for rent. The defendants even sometimes deducted “rent” from the pay of workers who did not live in his buildings.
A worker-led demonstration in June 2015, outside one of the defendants’ gas stations in Suffolk County.
Keshtgar has placed the individual gas station businesses where the plaintiffs worked into bankruptcy proceedings, but he and the other defendants in this action are not in bankruptcy themselves.
“[Steven] Keshtgar and his manager had a master plan to exploit us as new immigrants,” says plaintiff Shiva Baniya. “We worked hard and he did not pay our wages. He is taking benefit from wherever he can and we workers did not get anything till now. Through this lawsuit, we want our justice and dignity as workers.”
Adhikaar, a worker center serving the Nepali-speaking community, organized the gas station workers and referred them to The Legal Aid Society. Adhikaar Executive Director Luna Ranjit stated: “Unscrupulous businessmen like [Steven] Keshtgar knowingly take advantage of workers who are new to the country and may not know about their rights. This lawsuit is a step towards justice not only for the nineteen gas station workers, but all workers who work long hours for little or no pay. Together, we are working to end wage theft in all exploitative low-wage industries.”
Narbada Chhetri, Adhikaar’s Director of Organizing and Advocacy, expressed that “We are grateful to the legal team, because our members will now get justice.”
The clients are represented by The Legal Aid Society, Main Street Legal Services (CUNY School of Law’s clinical law office), and Kaye Scholer LLP. Staffing in this case includes Staff Attorney Richard Blum and the Employment Law Unit Director, Karen Cacace, from The Legal Aid Society; a team of attorneys from Kaye Scholer LLP; and CUNY School of Law Professor Stephen Loffredo, and CUNY Law student interns Jackelyn Mariano, Hoda Mitwally, Thomas Power, Alanna Sakovits, and Seth York, third-year students with Main Street Legal Services, CUNY Law’s clinical law office.
The CUNY Law students completed the work through the law school’s Workers’ Rights Project, which is staffed by third-year students in the law school’s Community and Economic Development (CED) clinic. The workers’ rights project provides affirmative litigation, legislative advocacy, and organizing support to workers in low-wage industries across the New York City area.
“This lawsuit intends to send a clear message to unscrupulous employers that they cannot get away with wage theft and other forms of exploitation against their workers. Through their organizing efforts, the 19 worker-plaintiffs and the organizers at Adhikaar are shedding light on appalling labor conditions in the gas station industry that the public should know about,” said CUNY Law student Hoda Mitwally (’16). “The Workers’ Rights Project is very proud to be of counsel to the workers, and we hope that this suit can be one tool to bring our clients the justice they deserve.”
About CUNY School of Law
Founded in 1983, CUNY School of Law is the premier public interest law school in the nation. The school trains lawyers to serve the underprivileged and to make a difference in their communities. A greater percentage of CUNY Law graduates choose careers in public interest and public service than any other law school in the nation. CUNY Law is ranked among the top 10 in the nation for its clinical programs and is one of the only law schools in the country to prepare students for practice through integrated instruction in theory, skills, and ethics.
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