Parts Authority Warehouse Worker Files Lawsuit Over Alleged Discrimination, Unpaid Wages

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A proposed class and collective action lawsuit accuses car parts distributor Parts Authority of violating federal and state laws by failing to properly pay workers at its Bronx, New York warehouse and discriminating against certain warehouse workers based on their actual or perceived immigration status.

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The 25-page Parts Authority lawsuit claims the company, among other federal and state labor law violations, paid warehouse workers at hourly rates that fell below New York’s statutory minimum wage rate and did not provide overtime pay equal to one-and-a-half times their regular wages for hours worked over 40 per workweek.

Further, the case charges that Parts Authority has discriminated against certain warehouse workers based on their perceived immigration status by paying them lower hourly rates than those of non-immigrant employees performing the same jobs.

The discrimination suit contends that Parts Authority has recruited immigrants, primarily from Guyana, to work at its Bronx warehouse through logistics companies DRA Logistics Corp. and 130 St Equities LLC, which do business as Workforce. According to the case, these workers were excluded from Parts Authority’s standard payroll and instead paid through checks issued by Workforce—at “unlawfully reduced rates,” the suit says. The complaint asserts that if a worker’s immigration status changed, they were no longer paid by check through Workforce but were transitioned onto Parts Authority’s payroll.

The plaintiff, a New York resident formerly employed at the Bronx warehouse, says he and other immigrants sometimes worked up to 84 hours per week. The man shares that during his employment, he was paid between $13 and $14 per hour (including when working overtime)—a rate he was allegedly told by a supervisor he was “lucky” to receive.

The class and collective action lawsuit claims Parts Authority also failed to provide the plaintiff and other warehouse employees spread-of-hours wages when they worked shifts spanning over 10 hours and unlawfully required them to pay $10 per day for mandatory van transportation to and from the warehouse.

Moreover, the suit contends the defendants did not use a time-keeping system to properly record employees’ hours, nor did they provide workers with a wage notice at the time of hire or when their rates of pay changed, as required by law.

The case goes on to allege that Parts Authority also intentionally failed to issue immigrant warehouse workers accurate wage statements with each payment in order to hide the number of standard and overtime hours they worked and the statutory wage rates to which they were entitled.

As the complaint tells it, Parts Authority is no stranger to allegations of unlawful wage payment practices, as “similar schemes” conducted by the company have been the subject of both federal litigation and an investigation by the United States Department of Labor.

The Parts Authority lawsuit looks to represent any warehouse employees who currently work or have worked for the defendants within the past six years.

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