Three employees who worked as suite attendants at New York's marquee tennis tournament, the US Open, filed a class and collective action lawsuit on behalf of suite attendants. The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Case No. 10 Civ. 0935) on behalf of persons who worked as suite attendants at the Arthur Ashe Stadium at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center during the 2004-2009 US Open Tennis Tournament.
Defendants include Restaurant Associates Events Corp., Levy Restaurants, Inc., Amerivents, JKDella Sales Dimensions, Inc., Scott Frain and James Della Pace.

The suite attendants claim that during the US Open tennis tournaments held from 2004-2009 defendants violated federal and state wage and hour laws by failing to pay all wages due including overtime to suite attendants who worked over 100 hours each week during the tournaments. 

"While labor law violations are nothing new, this particular case shines a bright light on how even the workers who are hand-picked to serve at a high-class event can be unfairly treated by perceived veterans in the catering industry," said Judith Spanier, partner at Abbey Spanier Rodd & Abrams, LLP and co-counsel for the case.

The suite attendants also claim that defendants improperly kept gratuities in the form of a 21% service charge paid by suite customers on all catered food and beverages.  Defendants' handling of the gratuities violated the New York Labor law as interpreted by New York's highest court in Samiento v. World Yacht Inc., in 2008.

Co-Counsel Mitchell Schley stated:  "One would expect that large corporations which charge patrons top dollar for luxury service at the US Open would see fit to pay their workers in accordance with legal requirements instead of causing them to have to seek help in the federal courts."

Judith L. Spanier, Orin Kurtz and Grace Parasmo of Abbey Spanier Rodd & Abrams, LLP and the Law Offices of Mitchell Schley, LLC, represent the plaintiffs.  The lawsuit seeks collective and class action status, monetary damages and injunctive relief to ensure future compliance with wage and hour laws at US Open events.