Justice Sought for Resident Workers Exploited by Supportive Housing Provider

December 16, 2015, NEW YORK—Legal Services NYC has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of two cognitively impaired brothers who were ruthlessly taken advantage of by their employers, Bilander Housing Development Fund Corporation (“Bilander”), Arete Building Services Corp. (“Arete”), and The Lantern Organization, Inc. (“Lantern”).

Jose Diaz and Rafael Raymundo Diaz are brothers in their early 60s who have limited educations and speak only Spanish. The brothers were employed by the defendants to work as janitors for the building in which they have lived together in a single small room for the past 15 years. For nearly seven years, between 2007 and 2013, the defendants systematically and wilfully failed to pay the brothers their lawful wages despite demanding that they perform full-time and overtime work, including on nights and weekends, attending to the building, cleaning, sweeping, responding to tenant emergencies, showing vacant apartments, and other general duties of residential janitors.

The brothers were instead paid true poverty wages—a mere $675 per month between the two of them—regardless of the number of hours they actually worked in a given workweek. Such paltry wages would not have been sufficient had they been for only one of the two brothers, but in fact these monthly wages were compensation for both brothers’ full-time and, indeed, overtime services. The defendants were fully aware of the great bargain they were receiving under this illegal compensation arrangement, knowingly reaping the benefits of a “two-for-one deal” when they hired the brothers.

The defendants’ conduct is particularly egregious given that they have harmed some of the very people for whom they purport to provide services. Bilander, Arete and Lantern collectively own, operate, and manage multiple single room occupancy buildings that, through substantial financial support from the federal and city governments, supply supportive housing to low-income residents of New York City.

“Despite their stated mission of providing services to the poor in New York City—a mission for which they receive substantial public funds—these employers knowingly exploited vulnerable New Yorkers,” said Julia Rosner, Staff Attorney at Legal Services NYC’s Manhattan program. “The way that the Diaz brothers have been treated is unconscionable, and we are determined to see they receive all their hard-earned wages pursuant to federal and state law.”

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, and seeks to recover unpaid wages and other damages resulting from the defendants’ wilful and numerous violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and Articles 6 and 19 of the New York Labor Law, for breach of contract, and for unjust enrichment.

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Contact: Kate Whalen, 646-442-3654, kwhalen (at) legalservicesnyc.org