Former Driver Sues Trump for More Than 3,000 Hours of Overtime
For more than 20 years, Noel Cintron was Donald J. Trump’s personal driver, chauffeuring the businessman — before he became the president — wherever he needed to go. Mr. Cintron says that he often worked 55 hours a week and was usually on the job each day at 7 a.m. Though his compensation changed over time, it was, he says, typically in the upper five figures.
But in a lawsuit filed on Monday, Mr. Cintron accused Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization of failing to pay him more than 3,000 hours of overtime wages — a sum that he has calculated to be slightly more than $160,000. According to the lawsuit, Mr. Trump and his business also cheated Mr. Cintron out of years of vacation time, sick days and expenses — and neglected to give him a raise in more than a decade.
“In an utterly callous display of unwarranted privilege and entitlement and without even a minimal sense of noblesse oblige, President Donald Trump has, through the defendant entities, exploited and denied significant wages to his own longstanding personal driver,” the lawsuit said. “President Trump’s further callousness and cupidity is further demonstrated by the fact that while he is purportedly a billionaire, he has not given his personal driver a meaningful raise in over 12 years!”
The accusations by Mr. Cintron, who is 59 and lives in Queens (as his former boss once did), echo complaints made by several others who have worked for Mr. Trump over the years and claim that he either underpaid them or failed to honor contracts for their services. Mr. Trump has also fended off unrest among employees by paying them to dismiss litigation against him, despite his oft-repeated claims that he never settles lawsuits.
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Culled from New York Times