Miami Funeral Home Operators Misclassified Workers, Failed to Pay OT, Lawsuit Claims

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Signal Finance Company, LLC; Miami Funeral Services & Crematories, Inc.; and First Cuban Financial Inc. are among the defendants in a 28-page lawsuit filed by two former employees who claim they’re owed unpaid overtime wages. 

According to the complaint, the defendants—who include three individuals with control over the corporate entities—operate two funeral homes in Miami. One named plaintiff, who worked for the defendants from July 1994 through December 2017, the case says, claims she was wrongfully classified as a manager despite never performing any true managerial functions, such as supervising two or more employees. Moreover, the lawsuit says the plaintiff had no authority to hire, fire or discipline other employees, nor did she perform work related to the management of the defendants’ businesses. Instead, the woman handled routine and repetitive funeral arrangements, office work, and customer service, according to the complaint. Though the plaintiff’s “very irregular” schedule varied during the time period relevant to the lawsuit—2015 through 2017—the woman supposedly worked a minimum of 54 and sometimes 60 hours per week without proper time-and-a-half overtime pay.

“[The plaintiff] was paid with company checks, and paystubs that did not reflect the real number of hours worked,” the complaint reads. According to the suit, the plaintiff was paid for some overtime hours at her regular rate and "a fraction" of her overtime hours at the proper time-and-a-half rate. "However," the complaint attests, "[the defendants] failed to pay [the plaintiff] for a huge number of overtime hours."

Per the second named plaintiff, the lawsuit says the man worked for the defendants from April 2015 through December 2017 as an embalmer helper and transporter. The plaintiff also handled “other hazardous duties” that required a license he did not possess, the lawsuit adds. The man reportedly worked an average of 55 to 60 hours per week without time-and-a-half overtime pay, receiving only his straight-time rate for hours worked in excess of 40 each week. Rounding out the case is the plaintiff’s charge that he was fired for “pretextual reasons” after requesting to go home and rest after sustaining a work-related back injury.

Both plaintiffs note in the case that they received checks stemming from a Labor Department investigation brought on by a co-worker who complained of wage and hour violations at the defendants’ funeral homes. Though the checks supposedly covered unpaid overtime wages for 2016 and 2017, no further explanation was provided regarding the specific number of hours the back wages were meant to cover. Further still, the second named plaintiff claims the defendants unlawfully retained his Labor Department check and forced him to take five days off in lieu of a cash overtime payment.