A Brooklyn man who signed up as an emergency snow shoveler during February's historic blizzard is hauling the City of New York into federal court, claiming he was paid for only a sliver of the hours he actually worked. In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, he accuses the Department of Sanitation of shorting him on storm shifts and earlier call-ins, saying the missing time adds up to dozens of hours. He is seeking unspecified damages.
What The Complaint Alleges
According to court papers reported by the New York Post, plaintiff Jacob Jackson says he logged roughly 40 hours between Feb. 22 and Feb. 28 but was paid for only eight of those hours. The check for that period came to $153.12, and Jackson says he was ultimately paid for just 16 hours total across the entire season.
The complaint says Jackson signed on as an emergency shoveler in November and reported to a Sanitation Department garage in Brooklyn. His lawyer is listed on the filing, which seeks unspecified damages for the unpaid time.
Pay Rates And Conflicting Numbers
The emergency shoveler information page for the Department of Sanitation, DSNY, states that pay starts at $19.14 per hour and rises to $28.71 per hour after the first 40 hours in a workweek. The same page tells workers who have not received a paycheck after six weeks to contact the department.
During the storm itself, though, public discussions of the job often highlighted a $30-an-hour rate for shovelers, as reported by the Associated Press and other outlets. Jackson's lawyers argue that those mixed messages and what they describe as gaps in how his hours were calculated are key to their Fair Labor Standards Act claim.
City Response And Payment Status
The New York Post reports that a DSNY spokesperson said thousands of checks have already been mailed out to emergency shovelers and directed anyone who still has not been paid to the department's inquiry email address.
Court filings cited by the Post say Jackson did receive a $153.12 check for one pay period, but he alleges that dozens of hours never showed up on his pay stub. His lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court this month. So far, the city has not issued a detailed public response beyond pointing workers to its payroll guidance while the case plays out.
Legal Claims And What Could Follow
Jackson's complaint says the city violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, a law that, according to federal guidance, can allow workers to recover unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, along with attorney's fees. The filing lists employment lawyer Innessa M. Huot as his counsel. Huot is a partner at Faruqi & Faruqi and regularly handles wage-and-hour cases.
The remedies available to workers who prevail on unpaid wage claims are detailed in the Fair Labor Standards Act reference published by the Department of Labor.
Why This Matters Locally
The emergency shoveler program pulled thousands of New Yorkers into the cleanup effort after the blizzard, and pay disputes like Jackson's risk shaking public confidence in that high-profile response. Local outlets documented how quickly the program scaled up and how large the cleanup crews became across all five boroughs. amNewYork chronicled the size of the operation.
For now, shovelers who think they are missing pay are being told to review their pay stubs and reach out through the department's inquiry email. Jackson's lawsuit could spur other workers to take a closer look at their own records and consider bringing similar claims.
