Hollywood parking bay blockers launch lawsuit against studios

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/25/new-york-parking-bay-blockers-lawsuit-hollywood-studios

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New York film and TV workers who reserve parking bays for Hollywood productions have mounted a major legal battle against studios for allegedly under-paying them and ignoring their employment rights.

More than 100 parking production assistants, whose credits include The Wolf of Wall Street, Trainwreck, American Hustle and The Amazing Spider-Man, have launched a class action suit against studios Lions Gate Entertainment, Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, NBCUniversal and Disney-owned Marvel. The workers say they are regularly denied their rights to minimum wage and overtime pay and have been issued with forged time sheets. They also say they have been told that future work will be withheld if they complain, according to the New York Times.

“Without us, there are no movies and no shows, and yet we’re still overlooked and underpaid,” said Christian Pellot, 43, at a news conference outside the Ziegfeld cinema in New York. Pellot, who said he had worked up to 150 hours a week on film productions, said: “All we want is our fair share.”

Another parking production assistant, Robert Tracey, 58, said his employers do not offer breaks and access to toilets. Another worker is understood to have suffered from frostbite, losing several toes, after spending a winter sleeping in a poorly heated car as part of his job.

The workers’ legal representative, James A Vagnini, said studios often pursued a practice known as “backing into” time sheets. “Basically they are fudging the hours in order for it to neatly fit into the shift pay, no matter how many hours the guys worked,” he said. “It makes it look like they are abiding by the law and still staying on budget when in fact they are shortchanging the workers.”

The workers also complain that they have been denied the right to unionise. The studios named in the suit are yet to respond to the allegations detailed, according to reports.