The U.S. Department of Labor has fined three well-known Long Island pizzerias in Bellmore, Massapequa, and Bethpage, each doing business as Gino’s Pizza Pasta Restaurant, for a total of $181,544 in overtime back wages to 61 employees. The pizzerias were also fined $22,002 in civil money penalties to pay the government for willfully violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Investigators found that the employers had violated the FLSA by paying workers “straight time” wages for all hours worked, rather than time and one-half for hours worked beyond 40 per week, as well as falsified time cards in order to claim workers were being paid accurate wages. This was done in violation of the FLSA’s record-keeping provisions. See: http://www.dol.gov/whd/media/press/whdpressVB3.asp?pressdoc=Northeast/20110421.xml

Currently, the FLSA requires that employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 per hour. Employers who violate these provisions are liable to their workers for the full amount of unpaid wages as well as an equal amount in liquidated damages. Employers must also maintain accurate records of employees’ wages, hours and other conditions of employment. Furthermore, employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees who exercise their rights under the law. For more information about the FLSA, call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243) or its Long Island office at 516-338-1890. Information is also available at http://www.dol.gov/whd.

If you or someone you know is not being fully compensated for all the time you work, or your employer has improperly calculated your hours worked, then you may be entitled to overtime and additional compensation. At Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC, our lawyers have extensive experience in handling employment disputes and knowledge in wage and hour law. Our office focuses on disputes dealing with overtime claims and wage and hour law violations, including violations resulting from improper wage and overtime calculations. We represent employees in wage and hour violations throughout Long Island and the New York City metropolitan area, as well as across the country. For a consultation, contact Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC at 1-888-5-JOBLAW

Wellington R. Burt was a rich timber baron from Saginaw, Michigan. Burt died in 1919 with a multi-million-dollar fortune, which was one of America’s largest at the time.  Instead of leaving his fortune to his children, Burt planned for his fortune to be distributed 21 years after his grand-children’s death.  Now that it’s 21 years since the death of the last grandchild, the fortune is finally being turned over to 12 of Burt’s heirs, including three great-grandchildren, seven great-great grandchildren and another great-great-great grandchild.  The fortune is valued at more than $100 million. Full article.

The Government’s estate tax is designed to tax assets when they are passed from one generation to another, such as a parent to a child.  For individuals that have a large estate, paying taxes at each generation can be extremely costly and often times can deplete an estate.  A solution is to establish a Generation Skipping Trust.  This type of trust effectively transfers assets from the grantor’s estate to his or her grandchildren, the children of the grantor never take title to the assets. This allows the grantor to avoid the estate taxes that would apply if the assets were transferred to his or her children first. Generation skipping trusts can still be used to provide some financial benefits to a grantor’s children, however, because any income generated by the trust’s assets can be made accessible to the grantor’s children while still leaving the assets in trust for his or her grandchildren.

The attorneys at Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C. have worked with a variety of families in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island.  For questions regarding estate planning, please contact an attorney at the Leeds Morelli & Brown P.C. law firm for a free consultation at 1-888-556-2529 or visit the firm’s website at www.lbestatelaw.com.

French soccer officials are denying accusations of racial discrimination based on a Mediapart website report which holds that the federation agreed to reduce the number of black and Arab players in national training programs.  The French federation president Fernand Duchaussoy and national team coach Laurent Blanc, who have been accused by Mediapart as being responsible for this decision, have denied any wrongdoing.  Mediapart reported that senior staff within the federation, including Blanc and Duchaussoy, approved proposals to limit the number of players of African and North-African descent to 30 percent once they reach 13 years old. See: http://www.silive.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/french-football-chiefs-accused-of-discrimination/20d392b25048445d92f64ec4a99d1353

Discriminating against an innocent individual or a group based on race or national origin may be prosecuted under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, such as those individuals who are Muslim, Arab, Afghani, Middle Eastern or South Asian.  The law prohibits harassment or any other employment action based on religious affiliation, physical or cultural traits and clothing. For more information, see: http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-relig_ethnic.html

Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC is a nationally recognized firm in the area of discrimination law.  If you or someone you know has suffered discrimination, a hate crime, or bias in the Long Island or New York City area, contact Leeds, Morelli and Brown, PC at 1-800-585-4658

As the budget cuts begin, about 74 Administrative Employees have lost their jobs in the NY State Court system in Manhattan. Layoffs will eventually total about 400 to 500 throughout New York. These layoff have not occurred for the past 20 years.  The layoffs come after a directive from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the NY State Legislature to cut $170 million from the courts’ budget for the fiscal year of 2011.  Thus far, the majority of job cuts included computer programmers, secretarial staff, and temporary employees who do not receive insurance coverage or other benefits and were in data-processing positions. It is reported that the bulk of the layoffs will be imposed by mid-May. Currently, the court system has about 15,200 non-judicial employees. Read more: http://www.law.com/jsp/nylj/PubArticleNY.jsp?id=1202490827322&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=New%20York%20Law%20Journal%20&pt=New%20York%20Law%20Journal%20Legal%20Alert&cn=break042011&kw=58%20Given%20Pink%20Slips%20as%20Court%20Layoffs%20Begin&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and other laws specifically govern which employees can receive overtime pay and the minimum amounts that employers have to pay. The FLSA establishes standards for minimum wages, overtime pay, record keeping, and child labor. The Act applies to employers that oversee employees who engage in interstate commerce, produce goods for interstate commerce, or handle, sell, or work on goods or materials that have been moved in or produced for interstate commerce.  The Act covers the following regardless of their annual dollar amount in income: hospitals; institutions engaged in the care of the sick, aged, mentally ill, or disabled who reside on the premises; schools for children who are mentally or physically disabled or gifted; preschools, elementary and secondary schools, and institutions of higher education; and federal, state, and local government agencies.  For more information, see: http://www.dol.gov/compliance/guide/minwage.htm 

Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC is a respected employment and labor law firm throughout Long Island, the New York Metropolitan area. Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC lawyers have experience handling overtime claims and wage and hour law violations, including violations resulting from the improper classification of employees as salaried, exempt employees based on salary. If you or someone you know is not being fully compensated for all the time you work, or your employer has improperly calculated your hours worked, then you may be entitled to overtime and additional compensation. For more information, contact Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC at 1-800-585-4658 for a free consultation.

The Division of Human Rights poster is now available in 23 languages including Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Chinese, French, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Somali, Thai, Urdu, Vietnamese. The attorneys at Leeds Morelli and Brown, P.C. commend the Division of Human Rights for reaching beyond language barriers to inform all those who may be discriminated against that people have rights.  New York State Division of Human Rights.

In the workplace, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. The law forbids discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment. Please visit the EEOC’s website for further information: eeoc.gov  the law requires equality and fairness in the workplace, many private clubs enjoy not having to abide by the EEOC.

The attorneys at Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC believe that discrimination at work, or anywhere else, has no place in a free and democratic society. Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC has won precedent-setting decisions involving employment discrimination for clients represented on Long Island, throughout the New York City area. For a free consultation, please contact Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC at 1-888-585-4658.

Pietro Ferrero, the CEO of the Ferrero Group holding company that produces Nutella and Tic Tac mints has died at the age of 47 after falling from a bicycle while on a business trip in South Africa. The decedent was an avid cyclist who was riding a bike on a training run on a road in Cape Town at the time of his fall.  Ferrero’s namesake comes from the former CEO’s grandfather named Pietro who started the company in 1942.  Since it was hard to obtain ingredients for candy during World War II, Pietro Ferrero decided used hazelnuts, which were in abundance in his region of Piedmont, Italy and invented Nutella by making a sweet paste from the nut.  The company has more than 20,000 employees worldwide and is estimated to be worth about 8.5 billion euro. Read more:  http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=1340197

This tragedy stresses the importance of proper will and estate planning in the event that you should pass away unexpectedly. Under New York law, to be valid a will must be signed by an adult testator (or with someone’s help), in the presence of the 2 witnesses or alone, provided he later shows the signature to the witnesses and acknowledges that it is his signature. The will must also be in writing and the signature must be at the end of the document. Finally, the testator must publish that the document is a will by establishing that the document is in fact their last will and testament. If these will formalities are not abided, then the document will not be admitted into probate and has no effect.

The attorneys at Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C. have worked with a variety of families in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island to probate wills.  For questions regarding estate planning, please contact an attorney at the Leeds Morelli & Brown P.C. law firm for a free consultation at 1-888-556-2529.