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 The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan says
employees at the salons, which have the same owners and are all on
Manhattan's Upper East Side, are paid $60 or less for 10-hour shifts
and often denied breaks.
The lawsuit said the salons – Nailsway, Naulo Nails, Nailsmetic and
Nailscure - violated New York's minimum wage law and a federal law
requiring time-and-a-half pay for overtime as well as meal and rest
breaks.
One of the owners of the salons, Surya Gurang, did not respond to a
request for comment.
The New York Times over the last week has published a series of
articles that say nail salon owners routinely exploit employees,
particularly immigrants, paying them as little as $30 a day and
failing to provide equipment or ventilation to safely deal with
toxic chemicals.
 Gregory Filosa, the lawyer who filed Thursday's lawsuit, said in an
interview that his clients, Blanca Fernandez and Gloria Marca,
approached him before the Times articles were published.
The minimum wage claims were filed on behalf of anyone who worked at
the salons over the last six years, while the overtime and break
claims go back three years. Filosa said the minimum wage class would
probably include more than 50 people.
In response to the Times articles, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a
Democrat, said this week that he was creating a task force to
investigate nail salons and establish new rules to protect
manicurists from harmful chemicals.
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Cuomo also said regulators would begin an education campaign,
notifying workers of their rights in six different languages.
Filosa said the campaign could lead to a rise in lawsuits against
nail salons as employees realize their bosses have been violating
labor laws.
The case is Fernandez v. Nailsway Inc, U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York, No. 15-cv-3710.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner; Editing by David Ingram, Bernadette
Baum and Lisa Von Ahn)
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