Pete
Four clowns are suing their former employer for labor law violations.
Brayan Angulo, Cameron Pille, Janina Salorio, and Xander Black have filed a lawsuit against clowns.com, alleging the owners of the Long Island, New York-based service misclassified them as independent contractors as opposed to employees – which means they lost out on a whole bunch of benefits, 404 Media was first to report.
The lawsuit claims the clowns were denied overtime pay, including for time spent preparing equipment and traveling to and from events.
The company allegedly failed to provide detailed pay statements, leaving employees unclear about their earnings, and according to the suit, Clowns.com violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law.
The lawsuit also claims the owners of clowns.com would make purchases for the clowns and then deduct them from their paychecks, even if the clowns never asked for them. One example the suit cites is the purchase of cheap clown shoes which the clowns didn’t want to wear.
One of the clowns, Cameron Pille, claims she was fired after speaking out.
“When Plaintiff Cameron Pille raised concerns about Defendants’ pay practices with another coworker, she was terminated within thirty minutes, in apparent retaliation for her comments to her coworker,” reads a press release issued by the law firm representing the clowns, Kakalec Law.
