CBS & David Letterman Slapped With Latest Intern Class Action Lawsuit

Yahoo ^ | Sept. 9, 2014

[george76]

Mallory Musallam filed a class action complaint against CBS Broadcasting, CBS Corporation and the retiring late night host’s Worldwide Pants Inc. for herself and everyone who has ever been an intern on the show. "Named Plaintiff has initiated this action seeking for herself, and on behalf of all similarly situated employees that also worked on The Late Show with David Letterman, all compensation, including minimum wages and overtime compensation, which they were deprived of, plus interest, attorneys’ fees, and costs," says the jury demanding filing in New York Supreme Court

...

Claiming that the production company and CBS intentionally wrongfully classified the interns that work on the CBS late night show, Musallam says their actions were and are a violation of New York State labor law.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Union plant? Oh, that would be DELICIOUS! :)

[george76]

He has another intern problem

[Red Badger]

Pass the popcorn, please......................

[sickoflibs]

RE:”Musallam’s attorneys allege that she worked a 40-hour week like a full time employee and did not receive any “academic or vocational training” while at the Late Show. In fact, they say that was the point so the production company could keep its payroll expenses down. “Upon information and belief, Defendants would have hired additional employees or required existing staff to work additional hours had the Named Plaintiff and the putative class members not performed work for Defendants,” the 14-page filing also adds.”

So what part of that violates NYS labor laws?

A link at the source article has more:

““By misclassifying Plaintiffs and hundreds of workers as unpaid or underpaid interns, NBCUniversal has denied them the benefits that the law affords to employees, including unemployment, workers’ compensation insurance, social security contributions, and, most crucially, the right to earn a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work, says the 23-page complaint (read it here). The proposed class action goes after NBCUniversal for labor law violations in using what are essentially free workers. “A key part of NBCUniversal’s success are the hundreds of unpaid or underpaid interns who work for it as production assistants, researchers, and delivery-people, but receive no or very little compensation for their work,” it adds. “

Also a claim that they were not paid minimum wage.

Guess NYS law has no intern exception.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I still remember when he confessed on his show to having sex relationships with staff. And the audience cheered. What a bizarre moment that was. The revelation did not hurt Letterman’s popularity with his fan base. Based on the cheering he got from his confession, perhaps they actually approved of him getting what he could get from females who worked for.him. Or, his fans being good liberals, were completely non judgemental and accepting of saucy behavior.

[grania]

It wouldn’t be the first time Letterman misused an intern.

[Drango]

Hollweird, the media (NYSlimes)and entertainment industry are all guilty of this. All of them.

[Nik Naym]

Intern is a code word for unpaid labor. And only a dumbass would agree to do it in the first place. And though I don’t agree with minimum wage laws I don’t see how this is legal wrt those laws.

[Liberty Valance]

[Pollster1]

I despise David Letterman, but these interns agreed to work for that disgusting pig for free, and he kept his side of the bargain. Their claim for back pay after the fact has absolutely no merit.

[GeronL]

Hard to believe that dirty old man is still allowed on broadcast TV. You can bet if he had made those jokes about the child of a Democrat he would have been out of showbiz forever.

[CodeToad]

“Guess NYS law has no intern exception.”

It does, but you didn’t read this part: “...did not receive any “academic or vocational training...”

[GeronL]

I really do not get how it takes so many employees and writers to come up with such a lame show.

[Red Badger]

Thank you. Pass it around!.................

[sickoflibs]

RE :”“Guess NYS law has no intern exception.”
....
It does, but you didn’t read this part: “...did not receive any “academic or vocational training...”

I read it but missed the connection.

I had to do a search and found link that says that Federal law exempts from minimum wage and overtime if it is purely for training and not to benefit of corporation.

[CodeToad]

In all intern positions there has to be value to the intern. The corp can benefit, greatly even, but the intern had better receive significant benefit in the way of training or experience. There is no established amount of benefit to either party, but this type of lawsuit can result if the corp simply uses the person as free labor.

Most companies I know are now paying interns $10/hour and not calling them “interns”. They call them something, anything, else to avoid this type of suit.

[sickoflibs]

I haven’t watch that show in decades for obvious reasons.

Here Verizon FIOS has added a new conservative channel called One America News Network OAN I tune into from time to time as an alternative to FNC.

It looks like it has a small fraction of the budget that FNC has.

I like any network that goes after Obama.