December 22, 2023
A bunch of clown performers filed a lawsuit in opposition to Clowns.com Inc. claiming they had been misclassified as impartial contractors and owed time beyond regulation and different pay, in response to courtroom information. The go well with seeks damages and has different allegations, together with from a former clown that claims actions by a Clowns.com proprietor resulted within the lack of a brand new job after the performer stop the clown work over Covid-19 considerations.
“Employee misclassification isn’t any laughing matter,” the primary sentence within the grievance says.
Clowns.com gives clowns and associated providers for kids’s birthday events and different occasions within the New York space, the lawsuit stated. It additionally gives magicians and costumed characters resembling Scooby Doo, Good day Kitty, Batman and Marvel Girl.
The go well with alleges Clowns.com promised plaintiffs wages of $25 per hour however solely paid for time spent really acting at kids’s events. It didn’t pay for time spent touring between events or to events from the corporate headquarters in Elmont, New York, the place the performers had been required to start out their workday. The go well with additionally claims Clowns.com made unauthorized deductions from wages and didn’t present required wage notices or statements. In an instance of a deduction, the go well with stated the corporate would deduct for any parking tickets entertainers incurred, for instance, when a celebration ran longer than scheduled.
Clowns weren’t free to determine when to work or the place to work or at which events to work, the lawsuit stated. Clowns had been additionally anticipated to be obtainable to work each weekend and had been penalized in the event that they took a weekend off.
As well as, the go well with stated the corporate set the pay of clowns and supplied clowns and different entertainers with uniforms, together with costumes.
SIA has reached out to Clowns.com for remark.
The lawsuit was filed Dec. 19 in US District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York. It additionally names Clowns.com’s house owners, Adolph Rodriguez and Erica Barbuto, as defendants.
Together with the allegations of misclassifications, the lawsuit additionally stated Rodriguez contacted the brand new employer of a former clown, who was later terminated from a brand new job. The performer, Janina Salorio, stopped working for Clowns.com through the pandemic due to well being considerations. The lawsuit alleged Rodriguez didn’t consider in Covid and despatched Salorio QAnon movies concerning the pandemic. The go well with additionally famous Salorio lived simply 5 minutes from Clowns.com’s headquarters and was usually referred to as in when different performers couldn’t work their shifts. After leaving Clowns.com, Salorio took a brand new job instructing music in August 2020. Nevertheless, she was terminated in December 2020. When she requested her boss on the music instructing job concerning the termination, Salorio was instructed that Rodriguez referred to as and stated she was “nothing however issues and drama,” in response to the lawsuit.
One plaintiff, Cameron Pille, was allegedly terminated from Clowns.com after discussing the legality of the corporate not offering pay stubs, the lawsuit stated.
Angulo et al v. Clowns.com Inc. et al, US District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York, 1:23-cv-10983-AT.
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