Los Angeles, CA: A Deutsche Lufthansa AG unit is facing an unpaid wages and overtime class action lawsuit filed by sheet metal worker Christopher Venegas, who alleges that Lufthansa Technik North America Holding Corp. and Global Aircraft Service Inc. acted as his joint employers and violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by failing to pay him overtime.
According to the lawsuit, "Defendants willfully misclassified Venegas and similarly situated employees as independent contractors instead of employees when defendants hired Venegas and similarly situated employees to provide services and labor."
Venegas worked for approximately three months on a Lufthansa Technik-led airplane restoration project in Auburn, Maine, where, according to the complaint, he regularly worked in excess of 60 hours a week. However, he was classified as an independent contractor and did not receive overtime pay at one-and-a-half times his normal hourly rate.
Lufthansa Technik is a Deutsche Lufthansa subsidiary that provides maintenance to commercial and private planes. Lufthansa Technik subcontracted with Global Aircraft, a Texas-based aircraft maintenance company, to provide sheet metal workers for the restoration project. Venegas' job was to make airworthy a post-World War II-era plane, according to the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, workers' hours were strictly scheduled. Global Aircraft supplied employees with tools and uniforms, and the company either put workers up in furnished apartments in Maine or provided housing allowances. Venegas and other workers, however, were classified as independent contractors and received their normal hourly salary after they exceeded 40 hours in a given week, the suit alleges.
"Venegas' primary duties, as well as the duties of the other similarly situated employees, were nonexempt as the term is defined by the FLSA,"the lawsuit states. "Defendants either did not pay overtime or paid [Venegas] and other similarly situated employees straight time for any overtime hours worked beyond 40."
Venegas alleges that both Lufthansa Technik and Global Aircraft violated the FLSA and Maine's minimum and overtime wage law. He seeks to represent any current and former employees who worked on the restoration project and who were not paid overtime based on their alleged misclassification.The lawsuit seeks settlement for allegedly unpaid wages plus interest, liquidated damages and attorneys' fees.
Venegas and the putative class are represented by R. Scott Oswald and Nicholas Woodfield of The Employment Law Group PC, as well as by Allison G. Gray and Jeffrey Neil Young of Johnson Webbert & Young LLP.
The case is Venegas v. Global Aircraft Service Inc. et al., case number 2:14-cv-00249, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.
