A performance from LNY TNZ at EDC Las Vegas, which is organized by Live Nation subsidiary Insomniac. Photo Credit: Matty Adame
Live Nation’s Insomniac is officially facing a firmly worded lawsuit in which a former employee alleges all manner of California labor-code violations.
One King Johnson just recently submitted the multifaceted complaint on behalf of himself and “all other aggrieved employees.” The 18-page action (which is seeking civil damages for the alleged violations under the Private Attorneys General Act) contains few details about California-based Johnson’s employment history with Insomniac, where he’s said to have worked as a security guard between June of 2021 and July of 2022.
However, the suit describes at length the alleged labor-code infractions. Per the legal text, Johnson in November of last year informed California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) of the alleged violations. The government agency didn’t respond to the corresponding notice within 65 days, the lawsuit shows, setting the stage for the civil suit.
(“Upon receipt of that notice or if no notice is provided [by the LWDA] within 65 calendar days of the postmark date of the notice given pursuant to paragraph (1), the aggrieved employee may commence a civil action pursuant to Section 2699,” reads the relevant portion of the Private Attorneys General Act.)
In any event, perhaps the most serious of the claims centers on the Electric Daisy Carnival organizer’s alleged failure to pay overtime wages to Johnson and other employees.
According to the plaintiff, the Pasquale Rotella-founded company (and to-be-named defendants) failed to provide the required overtime compensation in part because it didn’t “accurately track and/or pay for all minutes actually worked,” made a habit of “editing and/or [seeing to the] manipulation of time entries to show less hours than actually worked,” and sometimes paid “straight pay instead of overtime pay.”
Additionally, the Live Nation-owned promoter is said to have encouraged and/or facilitated off-the-clock work with pre- and post-shift tasks, by compelling team members to clock out for meals and then work through the breaks, and by creating an environment wherein the non-compensated attendance of meetings was the norm.
Behind these and the plaintiff’s many related qualms, the lawsuit elaborates upon Insomniac’s aforementioned alleged failure to provide adequate meal periods (which were allegedly canceled, cut short, and more) as well as full 10-minute rest periods (which were allegedly combined with the meal breaks and, in different instances, nixed altogether).
Elsewhere in the comprehensive complaint, Johnson maintains that Insomniac intentionally failed to provide accurate “itemized wage statements,” time records, the appropriate vacation compensation for employees departing the company, reimbursement for mileage and uniforms, “the amount of paid sick leave required to be provided pursuant to California law,” timely paychecks, allowances for lawful on-the-job conduct, and more.
Lastly, regarding the desired damages, the plaintiff is seeking (in keeping with the appropriate labor-code statutes) a substantial sum overall – including $100 a pop for each initial late paycheck provided (for all employees) as well as $200 for each subsequent violation and 25% of “the amount unlawfully held.”
Johnson is also pushing for $250 apiece for the first allegedly missing itemized wage statements and $1,000 for each alleged violation thereafter, besides significant damages for a number of adjacent alleged violations.