NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Former clowns employed by the Long Island-based company Clowns.com are suing their previous employer for back wages after claiming their employment status was misclassified during their time of employment, the plantiffs' attorney confirmed.
Clowns.com, which has a warehouse at 200 Meacham Avenue in Elmont, is a kids entertainment company offering a variety of "clown packages," among other services.
The federal suit was filed in Manhattan's Southern District on Tuesday by Manhattan-based Kakalec Law PLLC. Four of the company's former clowns-for-hire serve as the plaintiffs: Brayan Angulo, Cameron Pille, Janina Salorio and Xander Black.
The plaintiffs allege that Clowns.com, Inc., and its owners Adolph Rodriguez and Erica Barbuto, participated in years of worker misclassification and violations of federal and state wage-and-hour law, Kakalec Law said.
According to Attorney Hugh Baran, of Kakalec Law, the clowns were claimed as freelancers despite the fact that their schedules did not match the schedule of an independent contractor and they were still forced to abide by the policies of Clowns.com.
"Clowns.com hired our clients, had them fill out an employment application, required them to go through a mandatory training in clowning, to be trained on a very specific Clowns.com package show," Baran told 1010 WINS.
Kakalec Law alleges that Clowns.com promised the former clowns $25 per hour but relied on their categorization as freelancers to dodge federal and state wage protections, like the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law, and avoid paying workers promised wages or overtime wages.
One of the suit's plaintiffs brought up concerns about payment practices with her coworkers; she was allegedly fired within 30 minutes in an act of apparent termination.
"For years, Clowns.com has treated clowns, who are largely young actors with no prior training in clowning who sign up for this job to make ends meet, as independent contractors," Pille said. "I'm proud to join with my clown colleagues to stand up to their wage theft and misclassification."
The plaintiffs aim to represent a class of clowns and entertainers listed as independent contractors between May 5, 2017 and now, Kakalec Law said.
Baran told 1010 WINS that they believe there are dozens, potentially hundreds, of people who may have lost wages to Clowns.com.
"As our clients' lawsuit states, worker misclassification is no laughing matter. We're proud to stand with our courageous clown clients," Baran said.
