Professor James J. Brudney was quoted in a Washington Post exposé that details the accounts of former Trump National Golf Club Westchester employees who say they experienced numerous labor law violations during their employment.
In interviews, six former Trump workers told The Washington Post that they felt systematically cheated because they were undocumented. Some told The Post about being denied promotions, vacation days and health insurance, which were offered to legal employees. The same pattern of unpaid labor was also described by a former manager.
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On a few occasions, he said, he and his son would work about 60 hours one week, and their boss would have them work 20 the next. The paycheck cycle would average out to two 40-hour workweeks with no overtime. Jose Blandon complained about such practices but said he was told, “That’s why they hired you, to work.”“This bothered me a lot,” he said. “I felt this was labor abuse.”
This practice — called “averaging hours” — is also prohibited by New York law, legal experts said.
“Can they be averaged? Absolutely not. Overtime is measured in terms of the week itself,” said James J. Brudney, a professor of employment law at Fordham University in New York. “If what they’re trying to say is that they’ll average overtime over a two-week period, they can’t do that.”
