A former Subway employee has filed a lawsuit in Washington D.C. against his former employer for unpaid overtime wages. Erwin Zambrano Moya claims that his employer created fictional workers and put some of his hours worked under these “other employees” to avoid paying the additional overtime wages. ” According to the complaint, the owner accomplished this, in part, by paying Moya as if he were multiple workers, thereby keeping the real Moya under 40 hours each week”. Moya stated that he worked up to 70 hours per week, and should have been paid time and a half for 30 of those hours worked. Half of the hours worked were recorded under Moya, and half under another fictional employee name.
“In addition, Moya claims he was paid at just $7.25 per hour, less than the $8.25 minimum wage in effect in D.C. during his tenure. He also says he wasn’t paid at all for a 45-hour period shortly before his employment at Subway came to an end”. This former employee is proposing a class action law suit against this particular franchise. He alleges that several other employees working there at the time were paid in the same deceptive manner as he was. The scheme was intensified when the franchise operator went on to pay the plaintiff under the payroll of a completely separate Subway franchise. The defendant did not respond to a request for comment by the Huffington Post.
Subway itself is not named in the lawsuit, only this particular franchise owner who practice deceptive payroll tactics. There have been other low-wage businesses who have been accused of similar practices in order to avoid paying overtime. For example, in some other cases, employees were forced to accept payment in several checks. Approximately a dozen other former employees of the location are joining in on the lawsuit.