Class Action Alleges NYPD Officers ‘Routinely’ Paid Weeks, Months Late for Part-Time Paid Detail Program Work [UPDATE]

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A proposed class and collective action claims New York City, its police department and a number of vendors who participate in the NYPD’s Paid Detail Program (PDP) have “routinely” failed to pay off-duty, uniformed security guards until weeks or months after their regularly scheduled paydays. 

The plaintiff, a New York City police officer and participant in the PDP since July 2010, additionally claims he was removed from the program after voicing his complaints to the NYPD about the late and non-payment of wages.

According to the 43-page suit, New York City, the NYPD and vendors the likes of TD Bank, Duane Reade, B&H, Bloomberg L.P., Whole Foods and iHop participate in the Paid Detail Program, which allows certain officers to perform off-duty security work within the city while providing a “highly visible police presence” at participating businesses. Per the case, NYPD personnel who hold the titles of police officer, detective, sergeant or lieutenant are allowed to sign up for the part-time work, with the department and vendors working “in concert” to control all aspects of the officers’ employment through the PDP.

As the suit tells it, however, the defendants have engaged in a pattern and practice of delaying payment for PDP work for weeks or even months after officers’ regularly scheduled paydays, which occur every other Friday. Moreover, the lawsuit alleges the NYPD and TD Bank have each engaged in a pattern and practice of denying PDP officers minimum wages, as well as all earned wages, at their regular hourly pay rates in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Lastly, although New York Labor Law mandates employers, including vendors, provide employees at the time of their hiring a notice containing information on pay rates, paydays, employer details and more, the vendor defendants have never provided the plaintiff or other PDP-participating officers with such documentation, the complaint claims.

As an example, the lawsuit claims the plaintiff worked a PDP detail at B&H Photo for a total of 11.5 hours on May 22, 2018. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff was not paid for the hours he worked at B&H until around June 30, 2018, six weeks after the detail. In another instance, the plaintiff says he worked 5.5 hours at iHop in mid-January 2019 and was not paid until February 9, 2019, three weeks later. The suit goes on to make similar allegations regarding work performed by the plaintiff at New York City Whole Foods, Bloomberg and TD Bank locations, with the man receiving no pay until anywhere from three to as many as 20 weeks after the part-time detail was completed. According to the complaint, the plaintiff was paid for PDP work done at TD Bank in October 2019 on January 2, 2020 yet still had not received compensation for work done the previous September.  

Per the suit, the plaintiff worked a PDP detail at Duane Reade on or around March 6, 2020 and had a visit from an NYPD captain there to perform an inspection. Following the inspection, the plaintiff complained to the captain that he had not received wages for his TD Bank detail on time and, in some instances, was not paid at all for PDP work, the case says. Per the suit, the plaintiff was instructed by the captain to contact the sergeant in charge of the TD Bank PDP detail, who later that day called the man back angry that he had complained to the captain. 

The lawsuit claims the plaintiff was then suspended by the sergeant for 30 days in retaliation for complaining to the captain about the late and non-payment of PDP wages. Shortly thereafter, the plaintiff learned the NYPD had revoked his access to the PDP portal, thereby preventing him from being assigned to future PDP details. 

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