Los Angeles, CA: Gucci America Inc, is facing an employment class action lawsuit filed by interns who allege they were required to perform work that does not qualify as education or training, and that they were not compensated for that work.
Filed in New York by lead plaintiff Lindsey Huggins, the lawsuit claims that she and all other unpaid interns who worked for Gucci in New York over the past six years were improperly classified as minimum wage-exempt employees. Huggins alleges the company is in violation of New York Labor Law, and that those infractions date back to at least November 2008 when she began her internship at the company' Fifth Avenue flagship store.
"Defendant' unlawful conduct had been pursuant to a corporate policy or practice of minimizing labor costs by denying named plaintiff and the putative class compensation in violation of the [New York Labor Law] and its implementing regulations,"the complaint states. According to the lawsuit, Huggins worked at Gucci' Fifth Avenue store between November 2008 and January 2009, where, she claims, she worked about 40 hours a week. The work included speaking to customers, answering phones, taking orders, assisting with merchandise and pulling items placed through the company' online system.
Huggins alleges that that work provided no academic or vocational training to the interns and the company would have had to hire additional employees or pay its existing employees to work more hours had the interns not been working there.
Huggins is represented by Lloyd R. Ambinder and Kara Miller of Virginia & Ambinder LLP and Jeffrey K. Brown, Michael A. Tompkins and Brett R. Cohen of Leeds Brown Law PC.
The case is Lindsey Huggins et al. v. Gucci America Inc., case number 161446/2014, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
