A federal judge has ordered a variety of vendors at the US Open tennis tournament to pay $600,000 to more than 400 luxury suite attendants at Arthur Ashe Stadium who were illegally underpaid over a five-year period.
Brooklyn federal Magistrate Judge Steven Gold approved a settlement agreement that hit various vendors who were operating at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows during the championships from 2004 to 2009.
The 2010 class action lawsuit charged that food service vendors employing suite attendants during the two-week-long tournaments illegally classified workers as “independent contractors,” failed to pay them overtime, and retained gratuities given directly to the employees.