Employment rights for Manhattan workers

Which courts hear a Manhattan case

• State court: Supreme Court, New York County. Its appeals go to the Appellate Division, First Department, which hears appeals only from Manhattan and the Bronx.
• Federal court: the Southern District of New York, which covers Manhattan, the Bronx and Westchester and the counties north of them.

You may have a choice. A case can often be brought in the county where you live, where the employer has its principal office, or where much of what happened took place, so a Manhattan worker who lives in Brooklyn or Queens, or whose employer is based on Long Island, may be able to file in either department. See which court decides my case.

Where Manhattan law differs from Brooklyn and Queens

New York’s appellate departments do not always agree, and the First Department’s answer is the one a Manhattan trial court follows. Two examples from unpaid-pay cases:

• Whether § 198(1-a) gives a private right of action for late payment. The First Department says yes (Vega); the Second Department disagrees. The Court of Appeals has not resolved it. For a worker who was paid in full but paid late, this can be the difference between a claim and no claim.
• Whether the 2021 amendment to Labor Law § 193 applies to older conduct. The First Department says no (Fisher). The Second Department has treated withholding earned pay as a § 193 violation without needing the amendment (Okeke).

Where both departments are available, which one you file in can be worth money. Decide before anything is filed.

City law applies in Manhattan

Manhattan is New York City, so the New York City Human Rights Law covers work here in addition to the State and federal laws. It must be construed more broadly than either (Admin. Code § 8-130), and it has its own deadlines: one year to file with the City Commission on Human Rights (three years for gender-based harassment) and three years in court (Admin. Code §§ 8-109(e), 8-502(d)), and an employment-related agreement cannot shorten them (§§ 8-109(e-1), 8-502(d-1)). Filing with the Commission or the State Division can bar a later lawsuit on the same claim, so decide where to file before you file. See employment claim deadlines.

On the core City law standards, Manhattan and Brooklyn agree. It was the First Department that adopted the “treated less well” test, so harassment does not have to be severe or pervasive (Williams), and the Second Department applies the same test. For who the City law covers, the protections only New York City has, retaliation and what you can recover, see your rights under the NYC Human Rights Law.

My Manhattan work

Most of my class and group cases are heard in the Southern District’s Manhattan courthouse.

• Chalmers v. City of New York (S.D.N.Y.): a race-based pay class action for FDNY Fire Protection Inspectors. The class was certified in 2022, and a $29.9 million settlement was approved in 2025. Our firm was co-class counsel with Mehri & Skalet PLLC.
• The Parking Production Assistant cases (S.D.N.Y.), including Hines v. CBS, Leach v. NBC Universal and Morgan v. Warner Bros.: overtime claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law for production assistants who held parking spaces for film and television shoots. I was the lead attorney prosecuting them. Documented settlements exceed $28 million.
• Rodriguez v. Westech Security and Investigation Inc. (S.D.N.Y.): unpaid wages and WARN Act claims for security guards whose paychecks bounced before their employer closed. The court certified the case as a class action in March 2026. The case is pending. See when the paychecks bounce.
• CUNY campus peace officers: overtime claims against the State of New York under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which the Appellate Division, First Department reinstated in 2026, and Alshami v. State of New York (S.D.N.Y.), a putative Title VII class action over race-based pay. Both are pending.
• Dorce v. City of New York (S.D.N.Y.), a class action for New York City homeowners over the City’s Third Party Transfer program, under which the City took title to homes and small buildings over unpaid municipal charges and the owners lost all of their equity, not just the amount they owed. In September 2026 the parties moved for preliminary approval of a proposed $60 million settlement for the Round 10 class, which covers 64 properties. The settlement is subject to court approval. Claims for more than 500 other properties remain in litigation.

I worked on these matters with colleagues and co-counsel. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Where to start

• If you have been offered a severance agreement, or use the severance evaluator.
• If you are owed commissions or wages.
• If you have been treated unfairly because of who you are, or retaliated against for complaining.
• If you are working with a medical condition.
• If you work in financial services and your dispute is with a brokerage firm.
• For an estimate of what your claims may be worth, the case evaluator.