Workers rip hotel company
HOTELS TIED to the hospitality executive challenging Rep. Carolyn Maloney in an upcoming Democratic primary have had a roomful of labor complaints in the past few years, records show.
The U.S. Labor Department has lodged dozens of unpaid wage and overtime violations against hotels that congressional contender Suraj Patel and his family operate and partly own, records show.
Meanwhile, some of their hotels have been slapped with lawsuits by former employees who say they were unfairly kicked to the curb for taking time off under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.
Patel’s father founded the hospitality company Sun Development & Management Corp. in Indiana in 1989 and it has since amassed a portfolio of 32 hotels it manages around the country.
Patel (photo), who will square off against New York City incumbent Maloney in the Democratic primary next month, serves as company president.
Patel’s campaign spokeswoman said that while Sun Development operates the hotels, he has a stake of only 2% or less in each of them.
“Suraj had no involvement with the matters in question,” the spokeswoman, Lis Smith, said. “As the president of Sun Cos., his responsibilities were development, acquisitions, and dispositions of whole hotel portfolios.”
Still, some employees have accused Sun Development of dirty tactics, including Kendra Martino, a former housekeeper at a Holiday Inn in Titusville, Fla. She sued Sun Development in 2016 after, she said, she lost her job at the hotel when she went out on sick leave following a car accident.
The lawsuit was later settled for an undisclosed amount.
In another lawsuit, cook Jennifer Deherrar said the management at an Embassy Suites in Palmdale, Calif., harassed and discriminated against her over her disability — depression.
She accused the hotel of firing her when she went out sick under the Family and Medical Leave Act after suffering a nervous breakdown. That lawsuit was settled as well.
Meanwhile, hotel workers at Sun Development properties have had to claw back owed money by complaining to the Labor Department, records show.
The feds hit a Holiday Inn in Hattiesburg, Miss., with 17 labor violations in 2014. The hotel agreed to pay $1,738 in back wages to 16 employees.
The Labor Department also hit a Candlewood Suites in Hattiesburg with 11 violations in 2 2013. The hotel agreed to pay $4,481 in back wages and overtime to 10 employees.
Mario Cilento, the president o of the New York State AFLCIO, called the pattern of allegations “deeply troubling.” “If true, these allegations should disqualify any candidate, particularly one running for Congress,” said Cilento, whose union has endorsed Maloney.
Smith said that in the past 10 years, 10,000 employees have worked at hotels that Sun Development operates. She said that a general manager at each hotel handles the labor complaints and, if necessary, Sun Development’s human resource department will assist.
“Sun . . . has operated for three decades as a family-owned business and they treat everyone as family,” Smith said.
“That’s why they offer generous benefits, including health insurance — long before Obamacare became law.”
Maloney’s had her own property problems. The congresswoman, one of the wealthiest in the House of Representatives, owns a stake in two Virginia Beach properties that have gained a reputation for booting tenants for late rent despite having black mold, bad heating and lousy air conditioning.
Maloney also co-owned another apartment complex where the management was found to have discriminated against families, the Daily News previously reported.