Hollywood Lawsuit #2: PR Peeps Show up at Events, Don’t get Paid?

October 5th, 2011. By AbiK

The difference between this Hollywood lawsuit and yesterday’s post is that this one comes from a PR Rep who was actually on payroll.

Seems Daniel Malakhov—who worked for major PR firm Rogers & Cowan—filed a lawsuit against the firm alleging that he and other Rogers & Cowan publicists were required to work PR events after hours (when else are they typically?)—but they did not receive overtime pay, meal breaks or rest breaks. I suppose it has the makings of your basic California overtime lawsuit, if not perhaps that of a script-worthy plot line.

And let’s face it, if you’ve ever attended a PR event of any sort, it’s the PR folks who are hustling around, playing meet & greet, and ensuring all runs smoothly. Heck, even bathroom breaks can be hard to come by. It’s easy to see where overtime pay could be in order.

Apparently, too, the lawsuit claims that Rogers & Cowan didn’t mandate attendance at PR functions, but in making them voluntary made it clear that failure to attend such events would negatively affect their chances of career advancement.

So Malakhov is thinking bigger here—it’s Hollywood, after all. He’s seeking class action status on this one. And, Malakhov, showing a bit of altruism (?), is looking out for his PR brethren and filing the class action on behalf of all the firm’s employees.

The class action seeks the usual suspects: back wages and damages–along with an injunction that would force Rogers & Cowan to change its after-hours work policies.

In terms of the injunction, however, US District Judge George H. Wu ruled last week that Malakhov could not seek the injunction as Malakhov, himself, could no longer benefit from it as he is no longer an employee of the firm. Needless to say, Malakhov’s side is saying that to reject the injunction would mess with the the ability for the lawsuit to help those current employees who are seemingly still at the mercy of Rogers & Cowan’s existing  (alleged) pay practices.

Tags: Class Action, Hollywood, Malakhov, Overtime Pay, PR, PR overtime lawsuit, Public Relations, Rogers & Cowan, Wage and Hour

This was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Class Action, Emerging Issues, Employment . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.