New York Daily News

Don ripoff grinds my gears: suit

- BY ESTHER SHITTU AND VICTORIA BEKIEMPIS

President Trump's longtime personal driver was taken for a ride — getting stiffed on overtime for more than two decades and made to give up his health benefits after getting a raise, the employee says in a new lawsuit.

Noel Cintron claims in a Manhattan Supreme Court suit filed Monday that “in an utterly callous display of unwarrante­d privilege and entitlemen­t” Trump “exploited and denied significan­t wages to his own longstandi­ng personal driver.”

The Ozone Park, Queens, resident, according to court papers, “served as President Trump's personal driver for more than 20 years until the Secret Service recently undertook that role.”

As Trump's driver, “he was forced to work thousands of hours of overtime without compensati­on. 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!” Cintron's lawsuit alleges.

Cintron claims that he worked five days per week starting at 7 a.m. “to whenever Donald Trump, his family or business associates no longer required plaintiff's services” totaling from 50 to 55 hours per week.

Because of the statute of limitation­s, Cintron can only seek allegedly unpaid overtime for the past six years, which he claims totals some 3,300 hours, court papers indicate.

Cintron also maintains he didn't receive sufficient raises.

In 2003, Cintron received $62,700 and in 2006 his salary was bumped to $68,000.

While Trump in December 2010 bumped his annual salary by $7,000 to $75,000 a year, Cintron's raise was “granted solely because plaintiff was induced to surrender his health benefits obtained through Trump, saving Trump approximat­ely $17,866.08 per year in health insurance premiums,” court papers claim.

“Plaintiff has not received any raises since then,” claims Cintron, 59.

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